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RURAL CHRISTENDOM 



OR 



THE PROBLEMS OF CHRISTIANIZING 
COUNTRY COMMUNITIES 



BY 

CHARLES ROADS 

AUTHOR OF " CHRIST ENTHRONED IN THE INDUSTRIAL 
WORLD"; "ABNORMAL CHRISTIANS"; "BIBLE STUDIES 
FOR TEACHER TRAINING " ; " CHILD STUDY " ; " SUN- 
DAY-SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND METHODS," ETC. 



A PRIZE BOOK 



PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 

1816 Chestnut Street 

1909 






COPYRIGHT, 1909. BY THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. 



967 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



This book is issued by the American Sunday- 
school Union, under the John C. Green Income 
Fund, which provides, among other things, that 
the Union shall choose the subject — always ger- 
mane to the object of the Society — control the 
Copyright, reducing the price of the book in 
consideration thereof, and thus aid in securing 
works of a high order of merit. To conserve the 
individual traits and responsibility of the author, 
large liberty is given him in the literary form, style 
and treatment of the subject. 

This book enters a comparatively new field, and 
that it won the prize of one thousand dollars, out of 
many worthy and scholarly works in competition 
indicates its merit. The store of information and 
suggestion it contains on a question of foremost 
importance in our national life, hitherto scantily 
treated, will add interest to the comprehensive and 
scientific treatment of this new topic. 

September, 1909. 



CONTENTS. 



Section L— The Rural Situation. 

CHAPTER PAGB 

I. The Rural Community is Good Ground for 

Christian Principles 9 

II. Actual Present Relations of City and Country.. 18 

III. The Open Country and the Small Village 28 

IV. The Town Problem 51 

• V. Towns and Villages of Special Character 62 

VI. The Rural Suburb 72 

VII. A Great Future for Rural Districts 81 

Section II. — How Christian Principles are Spread 
and Made Controlling in the Country. 

VIII. The Twofold Way of Propagating the Gospel 101 

IX. Gospel Principles for Christ's Workers 106 

X. Civic Christianity in Rural Districts 121 

XI. Christlike Work-Day Relations 131 

XII. The Country Store *n the King's Business 141 

XIII. Christian Home Life in the Country 150 

XIV. Educational Forces Christianizing 167 

XV. Social Village Culture for Christ 191 

XVI. Village Improvement 199 

XVII. The Village Literary Society 208 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

Section III. — The Church for the Kingdom of 
Christ in Rural Christianizing. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. The Place and Power of the Local Church 217 

XIX. To Every Creature 226 

XX. Every Member at Work with all His Talents. . 239 

XXI. To Perfect Every Man in all His Nature 251 

XXII. Using all Her Resources 262 

XXIII. Discovering, Training, and Placing Her Workers 

and Leaders 282 

XXIV. Specific Organizations in the Country Church. . 291 

Appendix 309 

Topical Index 315 



SECTION I. 

THE RURAL SITUATION. 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE RURAL COMMUNITY IS GOOD GROUND FOR 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. 

In the open farming region and in the quiet 
country hamlet are found, in all ages, the most 
fertile soil and genial atmosphere for Christian 
character and many gospel institutions. With- 
out making claim now that the country is far 
more favorable to a conquest by Christian prin- 
ciples than the stirring city, we will indicate 
its inviting conditions. It is enough for its 
rich promise of development to show, that 
as irrigation and scientific agriculture have re- 
deemed great wastes of land, so the element of 
spiritual fertility which is lacking, may be sup- 
plied with amazing results. 

The country furnishes what the modern 
teacher calls " atmosphere " and what he re- 
gards as so essential to spiritual progress. At- 
mosphere in this pedagogic sense is much more 
than static environment. It is environment 



10 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

filled with inspirations. And nowhere are the 
inspirations to profound and strenuous thought, 
to sincere worship, to larger visions so power- 
fully rich as where God seems almost visible in 
the grandeur of his daily miracles in field and 
sky and mountain. 

This impressiveness of surroundings is felt 
even by the mature man from the city if he is 
at all tender of heart and soul, but when the 
child, whose open-eyed wonder rests first upon 
green fields, groves of majestic trees, and the 
unbroken expanse of blue sky, is given real en- 
thusiasm for nature and some knowledge of 
God, he will have a mighty initial impulse in 
the spiritual. Unquestionably he also needs 
early in life the stir of city activities, the city's 
intense stimulation of every faculty, and its in- 
spiring fellowships, and these are now accessi- 
ble to ever larger sections of rural communi- 
ties. But for noblest character which shall in- 
carnate gospel principles, both religious and 
ethical, the first touch and the finishing touch 
may well come from the farm and the village. 

Since the days of Paul and Luther, and even of 
Washington and Lincoln, many mighty forces of 
nature have been tamed and harnessed to serve 
man, yet now, as then, personal power is 
the supreme power. It was the thinking of the 
farmers of 1776, and their splendid character's 
and patriotic struggles that gave us a free 
country. It will be the sound thinking upon 



THE R URAL SITU A TION. 1 1 

great present day issues by rural dwellers who 
have time to think profoundly that will pre- 
serve our cherished institutions of church and 
state. The whole nation is concerned in the 
problems of the farm and of the village. 

The scientific spirit of our day, inductive and 
experimental, tireless and painstaking, aspiring 
for absolute truth and enlisting armies of in- 
vestigators, has created in thoughtful men a 
new attitude toward nature. Science has rec- 
ognized the reign of law, and there are those 
who fear for the vision of God. But even the 
non-Christian masters of science freely admit 
the necessary existence of Unsearchable Power 
beyond law and surely the Christian believer 
recognizes here the heavenly Father. 

Standing under the country evening sky, un- 
obstructed by lofty buildings, undimmed by city 
electric brilliance, can he not see with astron- 
omers like Herschell that the " undevout as- 
tronomer is mad " ; or with BufTon that " Na- 
ture is the visible throne of Divine power. 
Created to be a spectator of the universe, the 
divine spark by which man is animated, renders 
him a participant in the divine mysteries. He 
sees and reads in the book of the world a re- 
flection of the Divinity." Professor Hitchcock 
declares, " He who knows the most about science 
ought most powerfully to feel this religious in- 
fluence. He ought to go forth from it 
among his fellow-men with radiant glory in his 



12 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

face, like Moses from the holy mount." Still 
more sweepingly says Professor Harris, " God's 
revelation of himself is not limited to a few 
transcendent but isolated facts of the super- 
natural. Every lily and every sparrow, be- 
cause it is the work of his hand reveals in itself 
the thought and the power of God." So Ruskin, 
profoundest of scholars and seers, tells us he 
felt a thrilling awe and wonderful joy in his 
studies of nature. 

We have too long in easy imitation urged 
the Christian to rise from nature to nature's God. 
Spurgeon's thought is better, " The thing is to 
go from nature's God down to nature; to know 
God first in his Word and then see him in his 
works." It is after the morning communion 
with the heavenly Father that the hills and 
fields and sky are rilled with him. 

The growing " nature study " of the schools is 
extending into the country school, and is spurred 
on by great numbers of individual enthusiasts. It 
will inevitably lead to fine spiritual results as 
even in the rollicking verses of James Whit- 
comb Riley: 

" And so I love clover — it seems like a part 
Of the sacredest sorrows and joys of my heart 
And wherever it blossoms, oh, there let me bow 
And thank the good God as I'm thanking him now, 
And I pray to him still for the strength when I die, 
To go out in the clover and tell it good-bye, 
And lovingly nestle my face in its bloom, 
While my soul slips away in a breath of perfume." 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 13 

The time has indeed come when the man 
whose eye is on the furrow he is plowing in the 
country, and the man who is gazing on his rake 
for gold in the city, shall both look upward and 
see their crown as the sons of God, their God 
transcendent but truly immanent in the land 
where his daily wonders are wrought on every 
foot of ground. When we see these things 
through Christ's eyes and the poets' eyes we 
shall measure more fully the advantages of the 
country for Christianizing influences. 

1. Now when we are coming to appreciate 
more adequately the physical basis necessary to 
largest Christian life we see that it was in the 
country that the Washingtons and Lincolns, the 
Luthers, and still earlier Joseph and Moses and 
David grew the firmly knit bodies which served 
them in long-continued strains of grandest 
achievement. Their strenuous spirits mightily 
wrestling to express the life of God found pow- 
erful forms able to hold and to manifest them. 

2. Think again of the nearness of God in na- 
ture moving the heart. 1 

3. Only in the country is there the long winter 
of leisure for thought and meditation. There is, 
of course, much work on the farm in winter in 
feeding the stock, caring for and marketing of 
some crops, planning and erecting additional 
buildings, and so on, and there are men who " pot- 
ter " about the barn and stable all day with a few 
acres of a farm, but to the farmer who wills to 



*4 



R URAL CHRIS TEND M. 



have leisure, in most cases, all necessary work 
in winter is done in a few morning and eve- 
ning hours, and he is in his comfortable study 
five to seven hours a day. The absence of city 
distractions, round of fashionable follies, and 
manifold temptations to idling and dissipations, 
is an incalculable wealth of opportunity. 

The " old " farmer — in President Butter- 
field's happy classification * of " old farmer," 
M new farmer " and " mossback " — the " old 
farmer " who numbered ninety-six in every hun- 
dred of the people of America in 1800 " con- 
quered the American continent." It was his 
clear and virile thinking that broke away from 
old despotisms and wrongs and established the 
wonderful ideals and institutions of the Repub- 
lic. And, let it be often said, the future of 
America will largely rest upon the thinking of 
the " new farmer " who must ever be, if men 
are to have food to live, the largest single ele- 
ment of our population. What the farmer- 
citizen will finally conclude as to the issues of 
capital and labor, a rational system of finance, 
public franchises, and all else, will probably 
win. 

The farm-house now has the long evening of 
civilization. Few farmer families think of retir- 
ing to bed at the " candle-light " of our grand- 
mother's day. The candle itself is almost a 
relic. The development of the kerosene lamp to 

♦ "Chapters in Rural Progress," p. 53. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



*5 



its brilliancy of light and safety greatly 
lengthens life, and constitutes the new civiliza- 
tion which begins after the work day is closed. 
The Lincoln of to-day, with his passion for 
books, sits beside a Rochester lamp, with circular 
or double wick, air-fed, brilliant as electric light 
and far better than kings had a century ago. In 
the small towns and villages electric lights or 
acetylene gas are more common than in city 
homes. These hours for home and study dur- 
ing the day and the long evening give the 
country church its rich opportunity for ex- 
tended Bible study plans. If wise, fresh, and 
practical methods are inaugurated and by earnest 
personal work their general adoption is secured, 
the winter months on the farm will grow most 
beautiful characters, Christian home life and 
powerful churches. What splendid reading and 
thinking some farmers are doing these days, 
and what delightful and stirring discussions of 
deep current questions by the well-informed par- 
ents and the bright children there ! Family wor- 
ship around an open Bible read and talked over 
before the tender and comprehensive prayer, and 
then the time for private communion with the 
heavenly Father. 

4. The pre-eminence of the church in the 
country in the public eye is another vast gain 
for Christian life. The church steeple in the 
country is higher than any other building. It is 
not sunk in wells of brick and stone made by 



1 6 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

office sky-scrapers, huge manufacturing plants, 
and gigantic department stores. It is first in real 
importance as a public building and not fourth 
or fifth. There is no newspaper tower like an- 
other Babel overshadowing it in physical lofti- 
ness or in influence; there is no factory whose 
smoke entirely obscures the church building; 
and there are no playhouses, clubhouses, or 
worse, that are more attractive in appearance 
and program to the people. Who can measure 
the advantage of this church pre-eminence? 

5. Social conditions are freer in the country. 
They may be controlled by Christian influences. 
Old associations of the country home, the old 
hearthstone, the old oaken bucket at the well, 
the old apple trees, the old graveyard at the 
dear old church are ties of power. And the 
wide kinships of blood, the ideal friendships, 
and the abundant hospitality are there as no- 
where else. There are not the social extremes 
of rich and very poor. 

The rural community is good ground for the 
Christian life both in material and in environ- 
ment. In the farm regions there are drawbacks 
in contrast with city conditions such as scat- 
tered church membership, but this difficulty is 
also in the downtown city church; and in the 
large village and in the town the church mem- 
bers are usually only a few minutes from the 
church. There is the lack of intense activity 
and city ideals, but in the city church these are 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



17 



often outside. On the whole, discounting all 
that a just estimate requires, the rural districts, 
even of the sparsely settled farm community, offer 
very good ground for largest Christian effort. 
And the village and the town are still better. 



CHAPTER II. 

ACTUAL PRESENT RELATIONS OF CITY AND 
COUNTRY. 

Community life in America, city and rural, 
may be broadly divided into five distinct types. 
There are not simply two, city and farm life, 
as we usually classify them, but two different 
city types and three rural types of community. 

I. The city of metropolitan size is itself one 
problem, so vast and perplexing, that the at- 
tention of Christian leaders has been upon it al- 
most exclusively for a generation. The engulf- 
ing of the city in business, its whirl of social 
excesses, its overwhelming rush and crush of 
strenuous good and evil crowd and cramp 
the church from every side. It would seem that 
to save our greatest cities they must be stirred 
also by Christian forces outside of the church 
in active co-operation with aggressive forces 
inside the church. And all these forces have 
long been recruited from spiritual and active 
country congregations. The city problem itself 
is also a country problem, and the live and prom- 
ising end of it is in the country. 
18 



THE RURAL SITUATION. ig 

2. The next type of community is the large 
city ranging from ten thousand to over one hun- 
dred thousand population. There are several 
hundred such in America. They still have large 
and attractive residential sections in proximity 
to business centers ; they have not the mad haste 
of metropolitan activity; they have a more 
homogeneous population. This large city not 
metropolitan in character has, for Christian 
work, much of the great advantage of largest 
cities for intensely stimulating atmosphere of 
general enterprise, for large numbers of people 
easily accessible, and high ideals and general 
culture ; and it has freer social relations and less 
of extremes of wealth and poverty. There too 
the church is still the most popular place of re- 
sort, the pastor still a prominent citizen, and 
Christian fellowship close and delightful. This 
is, on the whole> the most fertile field for the 
Christian worker to-day. It may yet be saved 
by its powerful churches reaching outward. In 
many ways it sheds a light upon rural problems 
by contrast of opportunities and suggestions of 
methods. But it is a city field in every respect. 

There remain three types of community which 
are clearly rural. Alike in general limitations 
and conditions they are different in important 
particulars. 

3. The open country of farming, mining or 
lumbering people is one type, and their small 
villages belong to the same class. Then comes 



20 RURAL CHRISTENDOM.' 

the town numbering from fifteen hundred up, 
with its greater conveniences of living, its 
denser population, some civic organization, and 
better schooling. In places remote from large 
cities we may include some towns of five thou- 
sand as having about the same general charac- 
teristics. Lastly we have the suburb or resi- 
dential section near to a great city but not a 
part of its organic government, where rural 
conditions prevail, but with many new features 
to be considered. 

The United States Census classifies as " city " 
a place having 8,000 people or over. In 1900 
there were 550 such cities. But this line of 
8,000 for a place does not strictly divide be- 
tween city and country conditions, for there are 
cities above that population with rural charac- 
teristics in every respect, and many places below 
8,000, some of 5,000 people with a city govern- 
ment, city activities, and society. Allowing for 
these exceptions it is probable that about thirty 
millions of American people live in purely city 
conditions. 

But by far the larger number live in rural 
America, in ten thousand towns and villages, 
and in the open farming region. The total 
number of these country people is over 
50,000,000. Outside of densely settled New 
England, New York and three other States, the 
rest of the country has fully three-fourths of 
its people amid rural conditions. Problems con- 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 2 I 

cerning them are supremely important not only 
to them but to the nation and to the world. 

It is of course true that cities in America and 
in the world have grown amazingly. And some 
rural sections have decreased in population by 
influx to the cities. But rural America as a 
whole has also grown to vast proportions and 
is growing more rapidly than ever. The United 
States Census figures show this astonishing 
growth of farm and village population by dec- 
ades. The census defines as rural all people 
in cities less than 8,000 in population and the 
comparison is made on this basis : — 

Population in Rural Districts in the United States. 

1840 16,615,459 

1850 20,294,290 

i860 26,371,065 

1870 30,486,496 

1880 38,837,236 

1890 44,349,747 

1900 50,485,268 

*i9o6 54,107,571 

This crowding of new people is upon farms 
even more than into villages and hamlets. The 
number f of farms in 1880 was 4,008.907, in 

* Census Bulletin 71. Latest estimated population by Cen- 
sus Bureau including interdecennial census by fourteen states. 

t Census Bulletin 237 — figures for 1900 include the small 
number in Alaska and Hawaii. 



22 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

1890, 4,564,641 and in 1900, 5,739,657 growing 
much beyond rural population as a whole in the 
last decade. 

In forty years the twenty-six millions of i860 
almost doubled, and in sixty years the country 
population increased more than threefold. The 
United States as a whole has yet about three out 
of every five of its people living on farms or in 
small towns. 

4. The growth of cities itself necessitates 
enormous growth of farms and farm laborers 
to supply the cities with food. Already the pres- 
sure of increasing millions of people is upon 
food supply, and is alarmingly raising prices. 
This is sending other millions of people into the 
ever more profitable general and special lines of 
agriculture. The increase in annual value of 
farm products, 1890 to 1900, almost doubled that 
of the preceding decade, and for 1907 added 
58 per cent, to 1900, (1890, $2,460,107,454 and 
1900, $4,739,118,752, in 1907, $7,412,000,000) * 

5. Still more significant than the wonderful 
absolute multiplication of population in rural 
districts is the fact, shown by the last United 
States Census, that the drift city-ward is de- 
creasing and that a decided return movement 
from city to country is under way. This long 
time congestion of city life by the crowding in 
of the ambitious boy and girl from the farm, 
the town and the village, has aroused great dis- 

* Estimate of Secretary of Agriculture. 



THE RURAL SITUA TION. 



23 



cussion. The city-ward movement is over a 
hundred years old, beginning in 1800 when 
96 per cent, of the people were in the country 
and only four per cent, in the few cities of over 
8000 people then in existence; the movement 
grew slowly until in 1850 urban people had 12^ 
per cent. ; then it leaped rapidly as shown by 
decades to 16, 21, 22^/2, and in 1890 to 29 per 
cent, of the whole. But this promises to be the 
high water mark, for now the swing of popula- 
tion is reversing unmistakably, though great 
cities will continue to grow amazingly and 
smaller cities multiply. While there were 448 
cities above 8000 in 1890 and 550 such cities 
in 1900, a gain of one hundred more, none the 
less is the city-to-country movement remarkable. 
In the decade 1880 to 1890 it was shown by 
the census that two-thirds of the increase of 
the people went to the cities, one-third to the 
country, but for the decade 1890 to 1900 the 
proportion was nearly the same for each. The 
exact figures are an increase of 6,374,000 for 
the country, and 6,736,000 for cities. From 
1900 to 1906,* the increase for rural districts is 
3,112,693, for cities over 8000 population, 
3,466,927, showing that this movement to the 
country continues. Every thoughtful observer 
has noted the country-ward sweep, every city 
pastor of large and wealthy churches lamentably 

* See Census Bulletin 71, the latest estimates of the U. S. 
Census Bureau of Population before the new census 1910. 



24 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



knows of it, and every real estate dealer is try- 
ing to adjust rents and new houses to it. 

6. This rural trend is sure to grow to larger 
proportions. The call of the country is ever 
louder and more alluring. The longing grows 
for the open field and the larger free environ- 
ment for homes by leaps and bounds. Every 
consideration of economy and sentiment aids it. 
Parents believe they can train children bettei 
away from the crowded streets, under the trees, 
and in green fields. The hard-pressed, nerve- 
racked business man and the professional man 
of failing health sniff the country air with new 
vigor and inspiration, and are coming in col- 
onies, by villages and towns built almost in a 
day. The love of flowers and birds attracts 
many, and the call of the fields and streams and 
woods is eagerly answered now that electric cars 
whirl from the city in all directions far out, and 
automobiles have come, and airships next, and 
what not for rapid intercommunication. This 
mingling of city life with the country must have 
larger discussion later, for it will extend farther 
away from cities, and into the open farming 
region where already beautiful mansions on 
large estates are common sights. 

7. The rural districts are now strategic for 
Christianizing all America. There is where the 
forces of evil are weakest, unorganized, and un- 
entrenched. The saloon is rapidly withdrawing 
from rural America, and resorts of evil for 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 25 

gambling and lust never were known except in a 
certain kind of town. Moral and civic victories 
at the present time are won in rural sections, and 
in States with few large cities. The national 
well-being looks to country voters and country 
legislators for reform of all kinds, and there are 
the ever favorable battlefields. And for relig- 
ious work the same amount of effort always 
produces many times the result in conversion 
and strengthening of the church which is pos- 
sible in cities. The same expenditure of money 
will bring immensely larger returns for the 
Christian life. Country boys and girls crowd 
into the cities and it is easier to save them to 
Christ before they leave home than when in the 
maelstrom of city vices and sins. It is cheaper 
to prevent pollution of the living stream at its 
country springs than to filter it in the city. In 
the strong and attractive town or village church 
the future city dweller may be trained in char- 
acter and for service. Every weak country 
church is also a menace to the city. 

8. For its own sake rural America must be 
Christianized. It contains three-fifths of all the 
people, and is thus by far the larger field as 
compared with all the cities. It will be easier 
to save this three-fifths of the country than that 
two-fifths city America. The leverage for the 
whole nation is there at present, and the future 
swings that way. It is the pressing problem of 
to-morrow. In all the past the city was fed by 



26 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

streams from the farm and the village, its great 
leaders for the most part were bred in the 
country, and its best people came from it. It 
will continue to be country-fed and country-re- 
plenished in the future, though some of the best 
young men and women under the greater en- 
thusiasm for farming and its scientific develop- 
ment even now choose to remain there. 

And it is now certain that some of the best 
people from the country to the city are return- 
ing to the country to live. There will thus be the 
daily freshening and purifying of city people by 
the country more and more, so that to save the 
city we must develop the country church to its 
finest and loftiest service, character and training. 

This means that the city Christian must vit- 
ally interest himself in the country problem. He 
must energetically, as he knows so well how to 
do, throw himself into the rural church, help 
to finance its forward movements, and develop 
its utmost power. The uptown church needs 
larger organization for the kingdom of Christ, 
the downtown church must not be abandoned, 
but back of both of them is the country church 
which often actually sends into them more mem- 
bers than these churches win from their city 
fields. Do not these city churches owe to the 
country careful study of conditions, deepest 
sympathy, and support, and fervent prayers? 
Let this study of rural conditions by city Chris- 
tian leaders be at first hand by going into the 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



27 



country personally for it and patiently and 
fully investigating actual conditions. In no 
other way can deepest sympathy and intelligent 
co-operation be effected. For it is one thing to 
read about the sore needs of rural America in a 
city home, and quite another to study these needs 
under the trees of the farm and in the streets 
of the little village. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE OPEN FARMING COUNTRY AND THE SMALL 
VILLAGE. 

American farm homes are farther apart than 
any in the world, except possibly in some parts 
of Russia, and more isolated than any in history. 
In Oriental countries like Palestine, the farmers 
dwelt together in villages or walled towns and 
went out to their fields in the morning. Fields 
for pasturage were communal and free to all in 
many lands, and where the fields for tilling were 
allotted to individuals the farms were small. The 
families lived in the social advantages of the 
walled town so necessary for mutual protection 
from bands of robbers, or predatory kings and 
chieftains. 

In the Middle Ages farming was done by 
feudal lords owning vast tracts and their bond- 
men lived in groups of houses or villages like 
the slaves on great southern plantations before 
i860. In small countries like England, Ireland 
and Scotland the landlord nobility still hold title 
to immense estates given out in small tracts of 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 29 

a few acres each to tenants, and where the farms 
are owned by individuals they are small patches 
compared with the two hundred to six hundred 
acres of the American farmer. The homestead 
of the great West contains 160 acres, but the 
purchase of neighbors' holdings doubles and 
quadruples many of these, and even in the 
older Eastern States and Middle West, except 
New England, two hundred to three hundred 
acre farms are almost the rule. 

The American pioneer struck out with his 
family alone into the vast unbroken forest* 
Making peace with the few Indians who roamed 
over what are now great States he cleared a 
few acres, staked out as much more as he could, 
and worked while neighbors came on following 
his example in subjugating the wilderness. 
Miles apart were these early settlers and they 
learned to live alone. The vast Commonwealths 
have thus filled up, but even now the population 
of the whole country, distributing that of cities 
with the rest, is only twenty-eight f to the 
square mile, while in France it is 187, in Ger- 
many 225, and in Holland 440. The intensive 
farming of France and Germany requires only 
a few acres to support a family, and villages and 
towns near each other crowd these countries. 

Subtracting the population of cities and 

* See Roosevelt's " Winning of the West." 
t Census Bulletin 71. Estimates of Population for 1904 
1905, 1906, page 17. 



3 o RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

larger towns, say above 2,000, in the United 
States the actual farm populations on the land 
being cultivated may be estimated as probably 
less than fifteen to the square mile. This means 
only about three families of five each, on a great 
stretch of every 640 acres, a square mile. Even 
Russia has sixteen people, counting all her peo- 
ple, to the square mile and the farming there, 
for the most part, is not done by isolated single 
families scattered over large sections. America 
is probably unique in this condition of widely 
separated homes of the farmers. Before the 
new era of electric cars, rural free delivery of 
mails, and better roads, this isolation of farm life 
was becoming unendurable to multitudes. Be- 
tween 1880 and 1890 the rural population of no 
less than seven States * actually declined fully 
200,000 people though they gained 2,500,000 in 
their cities. These States are Maine, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Mary- 
land, and Illinois. Other States showed a simi- 
lar drift to the cities. 

Farmers, unable to sell or rent farms, simply 
abandoned them. In New Hampshire alone the 
State Commissioner reported 1442 vacant or 
abandoned farms. In Vermont f good land was 

* Dr. josiah Strong in " New Era " gives these facts. 

t Hon O. L. Martin, Vermont Com. of Agriculture, explains 
(letter June 21, 1909) that the Vermont abandoned farms 
were those earliest settled. The land was rough and later 
not profitable. " There are no first class farms in Vermont, 
abandoned." This is probably true of the cases in othei 
States. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 31 

offered at one or two dollars an acre. In New 
York State in 1889 in Wayne County there were 
400 empty houses, in one town fifty, in another 
thirty. In Michigan there were 7419 fewer 
farmers in 1890 than in 1880, though the popula- 
tion of the State increased over 400,000. In 
general out of a total of 25,746 townships in 
thirty-nine States and Territories, 10,063 town- 
ships * lost populations between 1880 and 1890. 
So widely distributed was this movement from 
country to cities. 

This loneliness is most painful in farm regions 
five, ten to fifteen miles from any railroad. In 
towns and villages along railroad lines there is 
usually a stirring life and more frequent visits 
to cities and larger towns. The inland villages 
and cross-roads suffer in every phase of their 
life from the attractions of the cities. 

Churches had become depleted, struggling, 
and some closed. In one New York village 
there were two abandoned Protestant churches, 
one active Roman Catholic church, and fourteen 
saloons. In another a former Presbyterian 
church is now used as a barn, the Baptist church 
is abandoned, and the two Methodist churches 
are almost extinct. These conditions were found * 

* 1880 to 1890. Dr. Strong. But lest we should become 
pessimistic let us remember the large majority of townships 
which actually gained population. And the gain in number 
of farms 1890 to 1900 from 4,564, 641 to 5,739,657 a gain of 
25 per cent. This, too, not by subdividing into smaller farms 
but chiefly by adding new farms for the average size of farms 



3 2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

in many States to a greater or less extent. In 
Maine there were ninety-five towns and planta- 
tions where no religious services of any sort 
were held, and even more than that number in 
Illinois without the Gospel. 

With this deterioration of churches went 
every other good thing, and there is no wonder 
that eminent observers, like the Home Mission 
Secretaries of the Churches, the Evangelical 
Alliance leaders, Dr. Josiah Strong, and others, 
became pessimistic over the outlook. They 
argued very conclusively to themselves that this 
drift to the cities depleting the country would go 
on with accelerating force. 

But it was not that the American loves farm- 
ing less. He loves his fellow-men more. Re- 
lief has come from the economic side,* where 
the Church was helpless. New means of inter- 
communication, new and deeper scientific inter- 
est in farming itself, have revived the former 
fascination of the field, the plow and the orchard, 
and with human society assured, the churches 
will be reopened, good schools built, and farms 
reoccupied. 

" Uncle Sam " has indeed been rich enough 
to give all who wanted it a farm,f and the eager- 

also increased (1890 to 1900) from 136^ acres each to 146.6 
acres each. 

* See Chap. VII. 

t The public lands still unappropriated and unreserved, that 
is, open to settlement and farming by the people, July 1, 1908, 



THE RURAL SITUATION. ^Z 

ness of the people in rushing into any newly 
opened territory is proof of how deep is the 
significance of individual ownership. The great 
majority of farms* are operated by their 
owners, 3,713,371 farms out of 5,739,657; by 
share tenants, 1,273,366, cash tenants, 752,920. 
This sense of independence and prospect of a 
large future has been an incalculable civilizing 
force in the lonely regions of our great America. 
And the farm home has become better in many 
ways for it. 

I. Thus it has remained for American farm 
homes to become the loneliest places in the civil- 
ized world. Yet so vast is our wonderful 
domain that with all the isolation there are 
nearly six millions of such scattered homes. 
More than one-third f of all work-people in the 
United States live in ones and twos on these 
farms, ten millions of farmers and helpers. In 
their villages near by there are of mechanics, 
merchants, and laborers nearly five million 
more. 

For all of these people on the farm, or cross- 
roads, mining, lumbering, or fishing village, 
there is the absence of city temptations and ex- 
are 754,886,286 acres. From 1878 to 1908 there were 88,945 
entries or purchases, representing about that number of fami- 
lies for public lands alone. 

* Census Bulletin 237, p. 6. 

t U. S. Census Population. General Tables p. 7. Total 
number in all occupations 29,287,070, in agricultural pursuits 9 
10,438,219. 



34 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

citements, but also the lack of city activities, in- 
spirations, restraints and enforcement of law. 
And there are many evils peculiar to the country. 

The farm boy and girl have no helpful as- 
sociations except schoolmates in winter and the 
Sunday-school class for such as that reaches. 
Do we realize what it means that there are fully 
twenty-five millions of such lonely young peo- 
ple, now with minds better educated, hungry for 
books but whose reading is largely unsupplied 
and unguarded? Long stretches of days alone, 
uneventful days, when the bad novel the boy 
gets makes worse impressions than on city boys. 
His few companions with their total stock of a 
few cheap books pass to him the evil because 
the good does not occupy or preempt the ground. 

This unoccupied condition is the real peril of 
the farming district. Everything intellectual, 
moral and spiritual in the average sparsely set- 
tled community is largely unoccupied and unde- 
veloped. And what evil comes is weeds, spon- 
taneous growths of the sinful because the good 
is not cultivated diligently. 

So time hangs heavily on the young man. 
Later in life he will go to the lodge one evening 
a week and to the grange occasionally, for there 
are few places that have not a " secret order " of 
some kind or an association or farmers' meeting 
occasionally. But there are six nights in every 
week and even Sunday night has, in many places, 
irregular services. What can the young man or 



THE RURAL SITUATION, 35 

the wide-awake boy do with all these unoc- 
cupied nights? He will not in these days go to 
bed at " candle-light " and he may not, in every 
case, love books well enough to read and prob- 
ably does not have books if he did love reading. 
The country schoolmaster and the pastor can 
tell pathetic tales of their unsuccessful efforts to 
induce many a plodding farmer to buy books, 
or to send his aspiring children to college. They 
succeed in some cases but fail often even to have 
the boy released from farm work to push his own 
way to an education. 

The country church too often is planned for 
the tired men and women who want a minimum 
of church meetings and activities. The super- 
abundant energies of the young people are 
scarcely touched. Even the Sunday meetings 
are more soothing to the overworked father than 
inspiring to youth. The preaching every two 
weeks gives little opportunity for extended 
ethical instruction and ideals of living. The 
religious needs of the people cannot be met by 
such infrequent discourses. 

Thus the child's moral education and training 
is left largely to the country home. But the 
Christian home is usually the creation of a 
vigorous church and requires such a church to 
maintain it. The church spiritually weak has 
homes without family worship or religious 
education, and thus the young people of the farm 



36 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

or little village are exposed to peculiarly strong 
temptations unprepared. 

2. The actual moral conditions of many open 
country communities, allowing for some notable 
exceptions, are not the sweet and pure innocence 
which casual visitors glowingly describe. There 
are sights and circumstances which sorely 
try the virtue of young people and children. 
Animals, especially the large animals of the farm 
and village, are not secluded in their procreative 
times, but are in sight of the excitable imagina- 
tions and immature consciences of boys and girls. 
One Christian farmer in Maryland, among the 
few of thousands I have observed, was alive to 
this peril and in all his arrangements he was 
scrupulously careful to keep his children away 
from such scenes. He told of his extreme cau- 
tion even with his son, then of full age, and that 
in home conversation the utmost purity was 
maintained. It was beautiful to see the result in 
the sweet refinement, modest womanhood and 
manliness of his children. 

But this is sadly exceptional. Gross and amaz- 
ing stupidity in this respect marks the conduct 
of many nominally Christian farmers. Their 
young children are early corrupted in their 
thoughts by these sights, and with so little be- 
sides to divert their minds the effect of these 
exciting suggestions is fearful in self-abuse and 
far worse. A recent discussion in a religious 
paper of these influences, in which pastors, 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



37 



school-teachers, and Christian fathers particip- 
ated, revealed shocking things.* It is a marvel 
that so many escape ruin, other influences for- 
tunately coming from the church or school to 
save them, but the social morality in many rural 
districts is deplorable. The criminal courts of 
the county have long lists of these crimes, 
though only a few reach that light, and social 
customs are disgustingly free, and many fall. 

One naturally hesitates to give facts of these 
vices. Any one can gather them in typical 
country districts remote from cities, but these 
very farmers who are so wickedly obtuse hotly 
deny that any evil results from their careless- 
ness. They ought to inquire of country physi- 
cians, of whom many are intimate friends of the 
writer, and learn the truth. Young men after 
their conversion tell their pastors, sorrowfully, 
of customs from which their unwatchful parents 
did not guard them, though some of these par- 
ents themselves fell by these perils. In one vil- 
lage, not so bad as some, nearly a dozen of the 
prominent families began their homes in shame. 
The country schoolhouse and its surroundings 
exhibit the children's impure thoughts. 

There is wicked carelessness in the conversa- 
tion of older people. Matters concerning ani- 
mals are freely discussed with the children 
listening and tempted to indecencies. The father 
thinks it all safe to talk to men and boys when 
* Sunday School Times. 



38 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



the women are not in hearing. But here the 
peril is greatest of all. 

" Don't send my boy where your girl can't go, 
For aboy'sora girl's sin is sin, you know, 
And my baby boy's hands are as clean and white, 
And his heart as pure as your girl's to-night." 

3. Foolish superstitions are not confined to the 
country. They linger long even in great cities. 
Few sky-scrapers or hotels have any " thirteen " 
rooms. One large building defied the supersti- 
tion and the " thirteen " rooms on every floor 
remained vacant though scores of applicants 
came. One brave man occupied the only such 
room and saw the other rooms renumbered 
" 12 a." No room in such buildings is opened 
on Friday to begin business. So the city has no 
stones t© cast at country superstitions for the 
thirteen and Friday notions are not only sense- 
less but peculiar for dishonoring Christ. Fri- 
day, Good Friday, an unlucky day for the world ! 
And the thirteenth at the table was Christ for 
he sat at the head after the twelve were there ! 
Some farm superstitions have at least a show 
of probability in sense and reason. But all are 
destructive of real trust in God, and of wise 
reasoning and decision about important concerns 
of life. How demoralizing to real character it 
is to believe in the good luck of finding four- 
leaved clover, or horseshoes, or carrying a 
rabbit's foot or a horse-chestnut in the pocket; 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 39 

how childish the man's or woman's mind fright- 
ened by the hoot of an owl or the howl of the 
dog. There are a great number of weather signs 
and superstitions just as unscientific and foolish, 
but still widely current. But think also of 
watching the phases of the moon in planting, 
and other astrological notions in deciding grave 
issues of life; what direful things will happen 
because they saw the new moon over the wrong 
shoulder. There is belief in fate and luck, in 
fortune-tellers, and a lingering dread of re- 
pulsive old hags, who are not always unwilling 
to be feared as witches. 

All these are notions which are impossible to 
reason away because they were never reasoned 
there, but which paralyze higher character, all 
real education and moral progress. 

Scientific lectures of Agricultural Depart- 
ments of States and of the National Government 
discoursing of better seed and analysis of soils 
run against these ancient notions in disgust. 
Sunday-school teachers who are lifting nobler 
ideals find them serious obstacles. They are not 
amusing but fearful and subtle inventions of the 
evil one, and some like the " Friday " terror an 
amazing dishonor to Christ. Is it not astonish- 
ing that these bald and silly heathenisms still 
persist? And still more surprising that the 
Church does not see how destructive of true 
religion they are! After all our progress in 
culture and rational Christianity that such super- 



4 o RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

stitious fears should still be an obstacle to 
Christian work everywhere. 

4. The loneliness of the farm and the few 
contacts with strangers make the child there 
afraid of new people. He shrinks from them 
painfully, speaks little and embarrassingly, and 
misses the development of gifts of expression. 
This serious drawback is not overcome by 
church and school in many cases. Children are 
crammed with knowledge from their studies but 
cannot use it effectively, and doubtless many a 
promising character is driven back to obscurity. 
This is another sadly undeveloped asset of 
country Christianity. 

There are no great happenings in country life. 
The round of daily duties becomes monotonous 
and with no enthusiasms of nobler pursuits there 
comes carelessness of little things. Slovenliness 
of person and of thinking results, and much 
more, but that so often God has some splendid 
mother here and there or some earnest worker 
who saves a few individuals from this drifting, 
drifting of every sort. 

5. Infidel arguments against the Bible and 
against religious convictions reach the awaken- 
ing country boy with a strange fascination. 
Their boldness and assurance excite admiration 
and their freshness is a delightful sensation,* 

* Sunday-School Missionary, July, 1909, pp. 5, 6. A Sun- 
day-school missionary in Washington State writes, " On one 
of my trips I found a mother and quite a number of children 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 41 

where so few things out of the humdrum are 
said or done. The old home library still con- 
tains the ancient book of Thomas Paine and the 
well-thumbed lectures of Ingersoll. There are 
no replies at hand to these startling and ap- 
parently conclusive arguments, as the youthful 
thinker regards them, for if he ventures to ask 
the pastor concerning them he receives usually 
a severe general rebuke for reading such books 
and in rarest cases only a patient guidance back 
to the truth. The plodding and careworn father 
and mother sometimes are still such thinkers as 
inspire the boy to bring his questionings and 
doubts to them, and among the multitudes lost 
to faith a few are saved. But in these cases of 
doubts from skeptical books, as in everything 
else pertaining to helpful religious instruction 
and training in the country, little or no individ- 
ual work is being done where it might be done 
most thoroughly. When these country boys and 
girls come to cities they are rudely jostled out 
of their doubts in many cases by the discovery 

at home near dinner-time. She said she was in favor of my 
work but her husband was opposed to religious things. She 
however invited me to stay and I found him a pleasant speak- 
ing man. At the meal he said, ' We don't give thanks to a 
mythical being here, we thank the hands who provided it.' 
The children listened eagerly to the conversation. One little 
boy, eight years old, spoke up, ' Our God is nature ! ' " To 
another he suggested prayer, but that man said, " O we don't 
have such nonsense, I have studied the Bible thoroughly and 
find there is nothing in that." 



42 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



that advanced thought has long ago buried 
Paine and Ingersoll into oblivion. But the child- 
hood faith is also gone. The rural church and 
home should be specially alert to meet this peril 
in an environment so seriously stimulating its 
growth. 

6. It is inspiring to find rural communities 
in which a strong church has created a new and 
refined condition of things reaching homes, social 
customs, and general life. We know such 
splendid churches which are a wonder of effi- 
ciency. Think of a building seating six hundred 
people in an open country with scarcely a house 
in sight, a building in attractive setting and 
modern appliances, and on Sunday morning pro- 
cessions of carriages from all directions fill the 
ample churchyard and the people crowd the 
church. A Sunday-school with modern ap- 
pliances, graded lessons, trained teachers, pre- 
cedes the general service and its fine singing, 
deep earnestness, and excellent results stir every 
heart. There are many such churches in purely 
farming districts. 

The supreme opportunity of the church in 
these places is shown by the fact that the church 
determines its character, moral, social and in- 
tellectual. For the church is the sum of all 
kinds of helpful influences there. Just as the 
father in the home formerly was civil ruler, 
priest, teacher, physician, as well as parent, and 
when the Fifth Commandment enjoins honor to 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



43 



him it includes honoring all these, so in the 
sparsely settled country is the church social 
center, intellectual club, entertainment and re- 
ligious guide in one. 

There are other churches which show great 
possibilities half developed and are doing much 
for the Kingdom of Christ. But they are slow 
to appreciate the value of modern organiza- 
tion of their forces. And the average country 
church is yet in a miserable condition. Slower 
than the slowest ox-team, long ago discarded 
in all but a few sections, with slip-shod organ- 
ization, no financial system, no interest in the 
Sunday-school, and holding no service at all in 
the slightest rain or threatening cloud. Every 
possibility of good in the people and in the 
community undeveloped, this country church is 
a burden to its officials and still a large pro- 
portion of the whole. Men well acquainted with 
the country churches of great States report that 
they do not know of any that are aggressive. 
Some of these churches are in a combination or 
group miles apart with services every fortnight 
or once in three weeks if the weather is fair. 
They are financially in chaos and raise so little 
money that they are limited to such scanty pas- 
toral care. A few such churches have the en- 
tire time of a pastor but he gives one service a 
week, no prayer meeting, no Sunday-school in 
winter, and what shall be thought of such a man ? 

7. Petty crimes of violence, thieving, and gross 



44 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



drunkenness where they prevail are due to the 
absence of law enforcement.* The saloon, fort- 
unately, is driven out of farming regions alto- 
gether in many States, and is rapidly going out 
of others, but where it still exists it is in its 
worst form. There country dances, wild and 
demoralizing, add to current evils. 

It is a misfortune also that the settled condi- 
tions in farm life leave so little to develop cour- 
age or bold initiative. In the early pioneer times 
the hunting of wild animals, the fearful Indian 
wars, and other perils exercised splendid courage. 
What can be done in the humdrum of the pres- 
ent day to compensate for this loss of stimulus to 
nobler character? 

On the other hand the introduction of much 
machinery on the farm has given a striking 
intellectual quickening. Work with whirring 
wheels, the puffing and scream of a steam engine, 
is always fascinating to men and boys and a 
more intense atmosphere of activity comes with 
the new and better mower and reaper, the steam 
thresher, the latest planter, and numerous other 
machines like incubators, cream separators, and 
other appliances. 

8. The country store is still a unique civiliz- 

* " Intemperance is largely the result of the barrenness of 
farm life, particularly of the lot of the hired man " — Report 
of U. S. Commission on Country Life, p. 44. The same 
monotony reacts toward other excesses of vice and crime 
when young and vigorous life is starving for sensations or 
activities. 



THE RURAL SITUATION: 



45 



ing or a demoralizing social center, and these 
stores range all the way from a dirty, low-ceil- 
inged, shabbily-kept little shop, often with a 
liquor attachment, to the ambitious country de- 
partment store with attractions copied from the 
city. The store is often also the Post-office, un- 
less rural free delivery has come, and then its 
power is increased. All the local characters are 
there sitting on the counter or huddling about 
the stove, the news of all the country round is 
gathered and discussed, notices of sales and 
church festivals are posted and read over and 
over. Here is an opportunity which some earn- 
est men who are proprietors have used helpfully 
for good. 

9. Farm homes vary as widely as do churches 
and stores. There are refined Christian fathers 
and mothers who stock their shelves with books 
and magazines, turn their best room into a me- 
chanic's shop with all kinds of tools for the 
boys, have a piano or organ, excellent pictures, 
bright games, and every possible attraction for 
happy children growing into beautiful character. 
One would think that every American parent 
would recognize that the absence of ordinary 
town and city attractions really enjoined upon 
them the duty of making their homes compensate 
childhood for such a loss, but there are houses, 
not homes, whose wholly unadorned, rudely 
furnished rooms are hardly as comfortable as 
some stables for the blooded stock. As Csesar 



4 6 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

said of Herod the Great, " One would better be 
Herod's hog than his wife, for as a nominal Jew 
he would not kill a hog," so one would fare bet- 
ter from some sodden, plodding, stingy farmer 
as his horse than as his child. 

10. This preliminary survey, however, should 
emphasize and re-emphasize the unoccupied re- 
ligious condition of the open country rather than 
any condition of settled evils. There are rank 
weeds growing but it is because the soil is not 
full of good seed. There is no reason for dis- 
couragement, nor for discounting the value of 
the country as the field for producing finest 
character and Christian leaders when it is wisely 
worked. It is a soil which though hardened by 
some evils allowed to troop over it, has yet few 
of the throngs of evils of the city; though 
it is not deepened by meditation and prayer as 
it may be, is by no means made shallow by petty 
whims of appetite and fashion; it is still simple, 
natural, genuine for the most part; and it is 
unoccupied and free from crowding of thorns 
of wild greed, passion, revelries and pleasures. 

It is in the green and not in the sere and yel- 
low leaf as so much of city life has become. It is 
not surfeited with rounds of entertainments or 
attempts at them, with intellectual feasts, and 
then left with appetites for all simple and good 
things gone. In the country there is yet hunger 
for the true and the pure in simple adornment. 

Much light on all country conditions is thrown 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



47 



by former President Roosevelt's Commission on 
Country Life, which made its report to him in 
Feb., 1909.* This able body of experts in Agri- 
culture and Economics held hearings in about 
thirty States and received one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand answers to a series of ques- 
tions about rural life, and a large volume of in- 
formation by letters and special reports. They 
report that the level of country well-being is 
higher than ever before ; that country population 
is increasing in wealth and multiplying the con* 
veniences of living. 

The Commission gives expression to their 
wishes and needs as the farmers voice them, and 
everywhere emphasis is laid upon the need of 
good roads ; almost every part of the country is 
awaking to this as the first need. Equal em- 
phasis is laid upon the need of more effective 
schools and a training in them for the farm rather 
than away from it. They point to the imme- 
diate necessity of fundamental changes. Then 
they want the extension of rural free delivery of 
mails, of parcels post, and wherever they have 
discussed it of postal savings banks. Local com- 
mercial organizations for buying and selling by 
the farmers themselves are being widely organized. 

The Commission earnestly urges more atten- 
tion to health and sanitation. The country has 
not organized to prevent typhoid fever and other 

* United States Senate Document 705 contains the Report 
of the National Commission on Country Life. 



48 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

diseases. There is great difficulty also about farm 
labor, difficulty in acquiring ownership of farm 
lands, and unsatisfactory systems of tenantry. 

" In general the country needs Communication, 
Education, Organization." For moral and spirit- 
ual work, also, the country is yet virgin soil. 
There are better equipped pastors and teachers 
willing to go and spend their lives in country 
pastorates, and with the splendid future coming 
to rural districts it is certain that still more 
capable men will enter these fields. Let us re- 
member Christ's own wonderful work in country 
places and all the inspiring aspects of it as a 
Christian opportunity. 

ii. Beyond these more thickly settled rural 
communities there are yet vast stretches of coun- 
try so sparsely inhabited that even the smallest be- 
ginning of church organization is thought im- 
practicable. It is difficult to realize that there 
are tens of thousands of these farm homes which 
are miles apart and only the cross-roads country 
store and blacksmith shop with an occasional tav- 
ern are in closer proximity, being the only groups 
of houses in whole counties or large sections of 
counties in many States. Here the Sunday- 
school missionary has accomplished his great 
work gathering the few children and parents 
into schools for Bible instruction. They have 
become in many cases centers of religious awak- 
ening and moral power. The American Sunday- 
school Union with about 250 such missionaries 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 49 

at work has penetrated into the farthest pioneer 
regions, and the Presbyterian Church, the Bap- 
tists, the Congregationalists, the Methodists, 
and other denominations are organizing in these 
strictly farm regions thousands of little Sunday- 
schools, the only religious service for miles for 
these lonely homes. Probably 25,000 to 30,000 
such farming regions are still to be reached by 
religious effort almost wholly in the form of 
Sunday-schools. 

We can only partially imagine how these Sun- 
day-schools are welcomed by the isolated pioneer 
family. In many of them the parents came from 
the older States and had enjoyed the privileges 
of church life from childhood. Now for twenty 
years in some cases, as the writer knows from 
personal acquaintance with these regions, they 
have not heard a sermon preached nor partici- 
pated in a religious meeting! Can you see that 
little group of ten or at most twenty, assembled 
after many miles of travel, and calling themselves 
a Sunday-school with all the officers regularly 
chosen, singing the sweet old hymns of former 
years, engaging together in prayer, Bible reading 
and study? But you cannot see the thrilling 
memories awakened in those hearts nor the great 
joy of the humble service. 

Many of these Sunday-schools will continue 
for a generation — one (a Union school) has ex- 
isted in Pennsylvania for over seventy-five years 
— but some, by the boom of the neighborhood 



So 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



bringing more people, will mature into churches, 
and in the same community several churches. 
There is rich opportunity for Christian organiza- 
tion but it must have regard to the peculiar ob- 
stacles and difficulties of the rural situation, the 
unique advantages for spiritual work it affords, 
the creation of Christian homes and the civic 
spirit, and then co-operate with them. Our prob- 
lem is how to achieve such organization and 
results, but it is a problem largely on the way to 
solution by notably successful sections of Amer- 
ican country life. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE TOWN PROBLEM. 

The town* with clearly defined rural condi- 
tions contains probably from five hundred to five 
thousand people. Some larger towns or small 
cities remote from the influence of a metropolis 
or great city maintain country characteristics up 
to ten or fifteen thousand people and even 
beyond. 

The United States Census marks off places as 
cities at 8,000 population and over, but some 
States like Massachusetts and Ohio wisely incor- 
porate with city charter at a 5,000 minimum, and 
below that in Ohio. These small cities, however, 
are no less rural communities in every respect. 

We will do well to call a place rural at five 
thousand down and allow for the few exceptions 
above that number. There are probably nearly 
ten thousand such towns in America containing 

* Throughout this book we use the word "town " as signify- 
ing such a collection of houses whether incorporated as 
village or city, or unincorporated. In some States the word 
"town" is popularly used to designate a township which is a 
subdivision of a county. It seems better uniformly to call 
that subdivision of county a township, the hamlet a town. 
S 1 



£2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

twelve millions of people. If these towns can 
be made powerful centers of Christianizing in- 
fluences they will go far toward curing our na- 
tional ills. These towns send their best brains 
into the cities and if they always sent mature 
Christian characters what a spiritual and moral 
quickening would come to the outworn, pre- 
maturely decaying life of great cities ! The work 
of pastors and Christian teachers in the town 
may often be discouraging, but probably it is the 
farthest reaching in the world to-day. 

The town as a field for Christian effort has 
undoubtedly many perplexing difficulties. We 
will not underestimate them in our survey now, 
though, as might be expected, Christian workers 
there often exaggerate them and are unduly dis- 
couraged. 

I. The temptations to social frivolities are 
among the chief obstacles to Christian work in 
the town. The lack of exacting business activ- 
ities and of great intellectual movements and 
associations on the one hand, and the always 
struggling church become burdensome and un- 
attractive, leaves a free field for social leaders : 
and they exhibit a diligence worthy of the best 
cause. All through the Fall and Winter there are 
rounds of euchre parties, whist parties, recep- 
tions, dances, and family entertainments. These 
are topics of unending small talk and engender 
the demoralizing gossip, jealousies, envies and 
heart-burnings always following social dissipa- 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



53 



tion. The grip of these petty pleasures upon the 
popular mind is too strong for announcement of 
revival meetings to bring many outsiders, and 
even church members have the parties during the 
meetings ; lectures of the best sort for culture and 
inspiration are deserted ; even the church festival 
is leading a precarious existence, and movements 
for the young people's better activities seem 
hopeless. 

Ordinary church work which simply preaches 
regulation sermons on Sunday, holds an old time 
Sunday-school, and a dreary mid-week prayer- 
meeting is unable to cope with the social swirl. 
Announcing revival meetings formerly would set 
the town astir and bring the crowds, but one 
can go to many now and not find an unsaved per- 
son present. And unless the meetings have been 
given special preparation, unusually good singing 
provided, and supported by a systematic personal 
work and with fine advertising, the " parties " 
will have more people than the meetings. But 
there are modern churches in some of these towns 
which have learned how to capture even the 
social forces. 

2. An almost paralyzing difficulty is the re- 
moval to cities of the best young men and some 
of the best young women of town churches. 
The pastor may train some fine leaders but about 
the time they become helpful, the call of the city 
is irresistible. They go and no man quite as 
able or popular now remains. What can be 



54 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

done ? What is the use ? Well, it should be com- 
forting to the pastor, for love of the Kingdom of 
Christ far larger than any church, to know that 
he has sent splendid reenforcement to the strug- 
gling city church, and before he leaves the 
young man he should see to placing him in the 
largest opportunity in the city. This pastor can 
follow him by letter, if not by visit, to a brother 
pastor and secure the best introduction to church 
work for him. In the final award there will 
doubtless come rich rewards to many an un- 
known country pastor for the splendid achieve- 
ments of some great city churches. So did that 
wonderful little Sunday-school in Connecticut, 
never more than fifty enrollment, whose superin- 
tendent, Henry P. Haven, it was, that Dr. Trum- 
bull called the " Model Superintendent," send to 
the world more than forty notable College Presi- 
dents, missionaries, pastors and Christian lay- 
men of national prominence ; so have the very 
flower of American men of letters, of Christian 
statesmen, reformers, and Church leaders been 
trained in the small town. 

But the pastor may discover others to train 
and send forth. That same small town holds 
probably a score of young boys of equally great 
promise. 

3. Then there is the lack of higher ideals of 
life which with all its sins and follies the city 
holds, and the lack of city inspirations to act- 
ivity. These are difficulties which too often are 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



55 



chronic in the Church itself. The leaders have 
lost lofty standards and intense life in the Church 
if they ever had them. They have lost the first 
essentials to forward movements. 

4. The general decadence of many American 
towns is a terrible fact. They are dying at the 
top, in nobler morals, in Church influence, in 
potent public sentiment and examples of ag- 
gressively good men and women. The laxity of 
law enforcement against vices and petty crimes 
results in weakening public moral sentiment. It 
springs from flabby public character and it re- 
acts to render it worse. There is consequently a 
deplorable amount of social immorality almost 
open and unrebuked. The " kept woman " is 
well known and the man who supports her bet- 
ter than his lawful wife, though he yet lives with 
the latter, is readily pointed out, for there are 
several of his beastly tribe in many a town. 
These men are not socially ostracized and they 
freely talk about their " woman," as in an instance 
which occurred while this page was being writ- 
ten. In one town the chief citizen in authority 
was known as such a social leper but elected and 
re-elected to his office. Both these towns are in 
an older State and have fairly good churches 
but only doing humdrum work. In many towns 
there are well-known married women who re- 
ceive other men, and one church had a vile wo- 
man who gave socials and put corrupting books 
into young people's hands. These things are pub- 



56 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



lie gossip but the church seldom has moral 
force enough to expel these people or even se- 
riously to disturb them in their sins. There is 
very little indignation against them. 

At times these evils break out in a hideous 
murder. But still the parents are very lax in 
guarding their daughters in these towns. At 
the railroad station when the trains arrive and 
at village corners a wild set of girls from four- 
teen to twenty years of age are a common sight. 
Late at night they are still roaming the streets 
and young men take liberties with them that are 
rude and demoralizing. A pious priest hotly ex- 
horted his people on the subject, " You will not 
go to bed without making sure that your cow is 
in the stall but your daughters are in the streets 
until midnight while you sleep unconcernedly. " 
But there was no improvement even after such 
a sermon. 

5. The destruction of the former small in- 
dustries of many thriving towns by great 
" trusts " is a serious loss in far more than its fi- 
nancial crippling. It has driven out the intelligent 
mechanic, who is usually there the best man in 
the local church. Other factories, fortunately, 
are coming, like canning, silk manufactories, 
shirts, box and basket making, and minor articles. 
These require some skilled labor but do not fill 
the place of the wood-working and iron-work- 
ing shops closed. And these new factories em- 
ploy girls and women and bring the perils of 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



57 



child labor. Yet this may be guarded, and the 
great advantage which the city stir of activity 
gives, more than compensates for the new diffi- 
culties of the situation. In New England the fac- 
tory has brought the French family from Canada 
with its religion, and other foreign races and these 
present special problems. But all this is better 
than the dry rot of the town deserted by me- 
chanics and men of ability. Christian citizens 
for every moral and economic reason should en- 
courage industries and then cultivate a public 
sentiment that will keep them morally clean. 

6. Another serious difficulty in Christian work 
in the town is the crowding of weak churches and 
church organizations. The larger population 
now more accessible even of the small town, has 
tempted denomination after denomination to 
build a church. And all are weak, and this is 
what makes this crowding a calamity. Not half 
the town is reached by all the churches and they 
struggle with debts and financial chaos, resort- 
ing to humiliating begging and demoralizing en- 
terprises. The pastors are underpaid and for 
months unpaid. Their self-respect is weakened 
and their influence and spirit broken. The very 
mention of the church becomes painful and griev- 
ously burdensome. Bishop Cranston of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church tells of a village in 
the West of about eight hundred people with 
thirteen churches! A woman was converted in 
one of the churches there, and the good pastor 



5 8 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

said in his hearty way of congratulating her, 
" Now, Mrs. S., you are happily a Christian and 
your first duty is to join one of the churches in 
this town. We shall be glad to welcome you to 
the fellowship of the church in which you found 
Christ but I would not unduly urge you to join. 
You shall be free to go into the church of your 
choice and conscientious convictions.' , Between 
the joyful tears on her face the good woman re- 
plied, " The church which I want to join is not 
numbered among the churches of this town." 

This is an extreme crowding but it is easy to 
find many towns of one thousand people in which 
there are five churches. In a town of less than 
two thousand, of which the writer knows inti- 
mately, there were six churches and an actual 
enumeration by all the pastors showed less than 
six hundred members in all of them, and about 
six hundred and fifty in all the Sunday-schools, 
leaving about fourteen hundred unreached even 
by Christmas time enrollment. 

The crowding and the neglect go together. 
The narrowly circumscribed pastor has a horror 
of being called a proselyter, and the " world " has 
the largest number, visited by no church official 
nor any organized effort. The Federation of 
the Churches of Christ in America, a newly or- 
ganized and officially representative body of all 
denominations, is now courageously facing this 
condition of things so hurtful to the Kingdom of 
Christ, especially when the newer states have so 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 59 

many towns with no church at all. There is 
hope for the pastor with no elbow room in his 
tiny parish. 

These difficulties summed up are formidable 
but by no means unconquerable. Many instances 
of better towns show the way out. 

Let us turn to the bright side and measure 
the advantages for Christian work in the town. 

1. The town has the advantage of some civic 
organization of government. In this is a great 
gain over the cross-roads village and farm region. 
There is some law enforcement against crimes 
and a somewhat higher standard of morality. 
There is protection from fire and petty thieving. 
But towns should develop their local government 
more effectively so that a policeman is within 
call day or night, rowdyism on the streets im- 
possible, and real protection given against bur- 
glars and personal assault. 

2. The larger accessible population gives the 
greater opportunity. The members of town 
churches are nearer to their houses of worship 
than is possible even in cities, and good roads 
open the way for a larger number of meetings 
and closer fellowship. The town church has 
the small territory, all the forces at hand, and 
may cultivate intensively and richly. 

3. Better schools and some public libraries 
bring larger foundations for Christian work. 
Every increase of general intelligence clears 
away some obstacles and should stir the church 



60 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

to meet it with broader plans, better services, 
and richer helpfulness in every way. 

4. Better homes exist than the farm-houses, 
and there is higher culture and refinement. These 
invite plans for Christian hospitality, Associa- 
tions like the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific 
Circle, literary and debating clubs, and elevating 
social gatherings. 

5. The peculiar temptations of the farm due 
to loneliness and exciting sights are not in the 
town and the great temptations of the city are 
unknown. What a field for aggressive plowing 
and sowing and cultivating in Christ's name ! 

We may now fairly balance advantages and 
difficulties in the town, and justly realize the 
great encouragement that remains. But there 
must be the modern spirit for adequate organiz- 
ation, bold ventures, and self-sacrificing efforts. 
We cannot win with stage coaches, tallow 
candles, and ox teams in church movements 
when all business goes by steam, electricity, and 
soon by flying machines. 

Usually the best place to begin the new life 
of the town is in repairing, modernizing, and 
beautifying the church building, or in wisely 
erecting a fine new one.* If this is financially 
impossible for the time, there is still much phys- 
ical renovating possible at trifling expense and 
gratuitous labor usually to be had in a town. 

* See Section III. for many instances and further sugges- 
tions for the country church. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 6 1 

But too much dependence may be placed upon 
the attractive power of a new building. It must 
be simply the inauguration of a new attractive- 
ness of spiritual, intellectual, moral, and social 
service for all the people. In many a magnificent 
structure lies a dead church, and a grand tomb 
soon ceases to draw living men. But both the 
beautiful temple and the still more beautiful 
spiritual organization may go together in ever 
widening power. 



CHAPTER V. 

TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF SPECIAL CHARACTER. 

The typical country town* is modified in some 
cases by special features, better or worse, than 
the ordinary. These features present new con- 
ditions which the people of these towns should 
clearly differentiate, though in general character- 
istics these special towns are very similar to all 
others we have described. Let us not fall into 
the easy snare of thinking any particular field 
strangely peculiar in its difficulties. 

The county seat, the factory town, the railroad 
town, the mining town, the fishing or sailor vil- 
lage, and the college or seminary town are the 
special types we may find in large numbers in 
the aggregate throughout America. 

The likenesses of towns generally are greater 
and more numerous than the differences. And it 
is a wise philosophy which begins by studying 
points of similarity whether we seek to measure 
men or things. All men are alike in many par- 

* See note, Chap. IV. By " town " we mean the hamlet or 
village but larger in size, not the township. 
62 



THE RURAL SITUATION. $$ 

ticulars. Even so angular and peculiar a char- 
acter as Abraham Lincoln is like millions in be- 
ing of Anglo-Saxon descent, in being a true 
American, a Westerner, a Christian politician, 
lawyer, and patriot, a home educated man. Even 
in his supposed eccentricities of loving a humor- 
ous story, of tender-heartedness, keen wit in 
repartee, he is one of multitudes. We can best 
understand him in his individuality after we see 
the many things in which he was one of a large 
type. So the factory town or the college town 
and the others have the same simplicity of life, 
the greater prominence of the church as a social 
center, the lack of city intensity and strenuous- 
ness of activity, and even in college towns the 
lack of some of the high ideals which compen- 
sate in cities for so much that is disheartening. 
College towns, however, stand in the best class 
of fields for aggressive Christian work. 

The perplexities of the ordinary town problem 
are also here. The vices and sins, the flow of 
gossip, the weakness of church influence, and 
the other limitations we have mentioned are in 
these towns also. Let us see, then, what is 
specially of importance to provide for in Christ- 
ianizing. 

I. The county seat town in the larger states 
is usually a busy center of population. Where 
the saloon still reigns, criminal court is fre- 
quently convened and thither flock the politicians, 
the criminal classes, and the bad women, several 



64 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

times a year for a week or two. There is an 
atmosphere of sensational life constantly felt and 
a stimulated business activity. But the church 
there may share in this intenser life unless the 
pastor yields to the desire of some of his men to 
be free during court sessions from church meet- 
ings to pursue gain unhindered. It is really 
the church's opportunity as many fine pastors 
have shown. The sensational stir is better than 
steady decadence or deadening slowness. If the 
churches in these county seats were aggressive 
and met the visitors with attractive religious 
services, open church, and personal work as busi- 
ness houses meet them with newly-decorated 
stores, new goods, and specially drawing bar- 
gains, the churches would accomplish splendid 
results from what are often regarded as unfav- 
orable conditions. 

2. The small factory town in many sections, 
except New England, still has an almost solid 
American or American-born population.* The 
factory is often under the wise management of a 
conscientious employer whose regulations and 
oversight prevent vice and provide helpful en- 
vironment. The stir of machinery is a stimulus 
to young and old, and where the saloon has gone, 
some of these manufacturing towns and villages 
are ideal fields for best Christian work. In 

* This is changed in cities. The factory village or hamlet 
is also receiving some immigrants but the proportion is yet 
small. 



THE RURAL SITU A TION. 65 

many instances too, a vigorous church is ready 
for the opportunity at least in part. But it is 
well known that in other factory towns the con- 
ditions are especially bad because of lax or even 
wicked management of the establishment, be- 
cause of the saloon, loose home restraints, and 
the unclean streets at night. Yet here the church 
could triumph if vigorously led and organized. 
Good Christians as citizens could reform the 
town and then the church might follow with a 
mighty revival. The very magnitude of the ob- 
stacles should concentrate spiritual forces and the 
wickedness of the people stimulate, every effort 
to save them. 

Careful students* of our changing conditions 
are reasoning that factories will return in large 
numbers to the small city, the town and hamlet. 
The rents and rapidly growing value of the 
larger city lots enormously increase expenses 
in these cities for all factory purposes, while the 
better sanitary conditions and more modern 
buildings possible in towns, the somewhat lower 
wages paid, and the freedom from dominating 
labor unions have attracted many capitalists to 
the town. It is common observation that 
in the older states these towns are recently crowd- 
ing with many kinds of manufacturing plants 
large and small. It seems plausible that this trend 
will grow in a self-regulating way to develop 
many towns moderately or to a size still retaining 
* Wilbert L. Anderson in " The Country Town." 



66 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

the favorable conditions, instead of congesting 
a few to become cities. The rural factory town, 
therefore, will become a large element in the 
country situation for the Christian leader and 
moral reformer to consider. It is fortunate that 
state laws on factory inspection are becoming 
more effective and practical ; that child labor bids 
fair to be under wiser and more humane regula- 
tions in the near future, because of the agitation 
upon that subject and the tender national con- 
science upon it being developed; and that the 
" welfare " movement among capitalists them- 
selves showing its financial value as well as the 
moral benefits of large interest in the employees* 
well-being, insures better conditions in these town 
industries. The growing factory town will be a 
large expansion of field to many struggling 
churches, solving in many cases the problem of 
overcrowding towns with too many ^churches, 
and will stimulate all the activities of many such 
places long in decadent condition. 

3. The railroad town is another well-known 
type but it has been steadily improving in moral 
character under various general movements. The 
Young Men's Christian Associations for railroad 
men have everywhere brought many railroaders 
to Christ and wisely provided for their leisure, 
as well as strengthened their hands in personal 
work for their fellows; Industrial Brotherhoods 
among them^ like the Brotherhood of Locomot- 
ive Engineers, of Railroad Conductors, and of 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 67 

other classes of employees, have been led by 
earnest Christians, like the late P. M. Arthur, 
as Executives and have notably succeeded in ele- 
vating the moral character of the men ; the stricter 
regulations of the Railroad companies concerning 
drink and immorality have had their effect. The 
churches in which these men, whose daily life 
is so full of peril and hardship, whose work re- 
quires so steady nerve and quick initiative and 
endurance, are among the leading members, are 
the best of country churches. They are generous 
in giving, trained by their work to be prompt 
and thorough, and living in constant danger, often 
become men of simple trust in God. They are 
unusually good material out of which to build a 
powerful church. On the other hand their Sun- 
day work takes them away from the church when 
most needed and renders their work in the serv- 
ices uncertain. And there are still large num- 
bers of railroaders unreached by gospel influences 
and whose love of excitement tempts them to 
excesses of vice, so that railroad towns are often 
both commendable for church activity and fear- 
fully bad in immoralities. Sabbath desecration 
is specially demoralizing in the railroad town. 

4. The mining town now has a large admix- 
ture of immigrants from Southeastern Europe, 
the Slavs, Hungarians, Bohemians, Poles, and 
Lithuanians. In one Pennsylvania mining town 
the Lithuanians rule. They elected the Mayor, 
the majority of the City Councils, and have a 



68 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

police force of their own people. But they are no 
worse, probably better, than former government 
there. In another town where only English and 
German were spoken formerly it is said that a 
man counted thirty different languages spoken at 
the railroad station one day. The Penna. Bible 
Society requires Bibles in seventy languages and 
dialects to supply these regions. The small min- 
ing villages or " patches " are almost solidly of 
these people in some sections and are being con- 
sidered important fields by Home Mission work- 
ers. Here earnest Christians are feeling their 
responsibility, learning these languages in a few 
splendid cases, and working hand to hand with 
them. It would mean a new and wonderful life 
for the local churches to plan for their people 
to undertake such personal mission work. There 
are other mining regions where a large number 
are yet Americans, in many yet a predominating 
American population, or the descendants of Irish, 
English, Welsh, and Germans, all now English 
speaking. The mining town is above all things 
excitable. It is usually rife with drunkenness 
though not so bad in social vices as some other 
towns. Churches are better than in most towns 
of their size and many of them doing excellent 
spiritual work when run intensely, for the people 
must have exciting activity all the time. There 
is no better place for an " open church, never 
closed " with broadened activities. The people 
are on the streets every night and the " never 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



69 



closed " church has a wonderful opportunity. 
With a spiritual center of power and all other 
work co-ordinated to it, the church in a mining 
town would have crowds and a continuous in- 
gathering. 

5. The fishing village or town of the men of 
the sea has its peculiar difficulties, hard to un- 
derstand by people who have never lived there. 
There are many idle days when no boat can go 
out to fish and no place has then such absolute 
idleness. The men and boys lounge and sleep 
all day. The uncertainty of returns from their 
work is a financial confusion. Sometimes they 
receive large money compensation and at other 
times for considerable periods next to nothing, 
and this leads to swinging from extravagance 
to pinching need. It makes it risky to plan for 
the church or the home. Their work, however, 
develops courage and boldness, patience and sym- 
pathy in losses and sufferings of others. We 
know some churches of spiritual power in fish- 
ing and oyster towns, and others as dead as the 
lazily flapping sail on the boat in midsummer 
calm. Christ found in fishermen like John, James, 
and Peter apostles of power and the sea still 
develops such splendid types of character when 
one with Christlike spirit knows how to discover, 
train and place them. 

6. The college or seminary town, when the in- 
stitution of learning in it is under religious in- 



7 o 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



fluences, is specially favored. The fine oppor- 
tunity to educate young people in the classics 
while in home environment is itself beyond price. 
Many are induced by the presence of the college, 
to pursue extended courses who would not, or 
think they could not, leave home to do it. It is 
a general awakener and mighty stimulus to 
higher life in every way. The atmosphere of re- 
finement and culture created is helpful. The 
presence of the college faculty gives an intel- 
lectual tone to social life. The churches secure 
better equipped pastors necessarily and the sing- 
ing and worship are enriched. A few strong 
men in the local church in some cases frown 
upon unusual attention given to students, making 
a perplexing problem to the pastor but these are 
probably exceptional. These towns are among 
the first to drive out the saloon and are ideal 
places for the training of children. The oppor- 
tunity of the church is of that higher sort which 
means intensive culture, the presentation of loft- 
iest ideals of life, and of the noblest things of 
Christlike character. There may be trained 
great leaders for the church. 

All these special types of town are yet dis- 
tinctively rural. Life is simple, freer in social 
intercourse, and not over-crowded. The church 
can accomplish far more than in cities with the 
same effort and money. 

Civic reforms are attainable which in cities 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



n 



would have no chance of victory. Home life, 
sweet and strong, is there. The town must be 
arrested in its spiritual and moral decay, and may 
be started upward into large realization of the 
Kingdom of God. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE RURAL SUBURB. 

Blessed is that suburb which finds as it be- 
gins expanding, an aggressive and spiritual 
church in the midst. By its shepherding of the 
new families as they come, they are deeply in- 
fluenced or captured, and the character of a 
suburb has actually been made Christian by one 
such church. The story is an inspiration to 
others to do likewise. 

There are suburbs, so called, with manufactur- 
ing and other industries whose population and 
characteristics are the same as those of factory 
towns. Proximity to a great city gives the ad- 
ditional advantage of city inspiration to some ex- 
tent and some influence from city ideals. But 
otherwise the religious and moral conditions are 
those of the town we have just been discussing. 
In reality such " suburbs " are large towns near 
a city, and their people not only sleep and eat 
evening dinners there, but live there altogether 
and have their daily work and all other inter- 
ests in the place. 

7 2 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 73 

The other kind of suburb, which must be dis- 
tinguished from the town, is purely a residence 
community, usually of the salaried people of a 
city or of its business men. For the men it is, 
during the week, simply the sleeping place and 
the place for good evening dinners, and on Sun- 
day the place to which they immediately return, 
as many of the residents do, from a morning 
church service in the city. Or, more justly, on 
the whole in every way it is the place of their 
comfortable, attractive, and restful homes. 

There are grave religious perils in the resi- 
dential suburb. With most of these the pastor 
and Christian people are only too deeply im- 
pressed for they are despairing about them, but 
they usually overlook some of the obstacles even 
greater. 

1. There is the danger of satisfaction with a 
fine church building and a good Sunday morning 
service. The structures for worship in suburbs 
are usually handsome as they ought to be with 
the wealth of the residents and the character of 
their own homes. The people point with pride 
to them and often wonder what more is neces- 
sary. And if they have, besides, a fairly good 
preacher for Sunday morning service what more 
could be expected of them ? " To go to an even- 
ing service? And to prayer-meeting and a lot 
of other services during the week ? " Well, they 
came out to the country to rest, and the neigh- 
borhood is made up of good people, and they 



74 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



have been attending church services all their 
life! 

The good men and women, however, who 
would reduce their children, by their own non- 
attendance, to only one really inspiring service a 
week, and to so small spiritual culture, forget 
that they themselves did not become the matured 
Christians they are, loving Christ's Church, on 
one religious service in early life. They tell 
you of two lengthy sermons and worship, of two 
sessions of the Sunday-school, of an attractive 
mid-week service, of religious homes with in- 
struction and worship, and of personal devo- 
tional habits of Bible reading and daily prayer. 
In New England in the colonial days the old 
church was town hall, school, library, social cen- 
ter and church in one.* They assembled Sunday 
morning with practically every man, woman, and 
child present at nine o'clock to have an all com- 
prehensive prayer earnest and long, a sermon of 
more than an hour, then cold lunch and a second 
sermon of sometimes two hours. But that discip- 
line and teaching gave Massachusetts hundreds 
of famous men of ripest character and scholar- 
ship to a few score from five other states under 
" modern " church life. Why should these sub- 
urban Christian parents expect their children to 
grow great in character on one small service a 
week and no home religion? Are they ready to 

* Dr. Hillis, in " Man's Value to Society." He judges by 
prominence in Encyclopedias. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



75 



forfeit all matured Christian habits and deep 
spiritual life of their children to indulge in home 
lounging which they call rest? And then in 
later life have those children by their godless- 
ness and selfishness fearfully break into the rest, 
the aged parents will then desire so much more? 
By all the gratitude Christian parents feel for 
their early religious life they ought to furnish 
what is just as good for their children. 

2. This danger is general of making the 
suburb chiefly the place of absolute inactivity 
and of evening and Sunday dinners prolonged 
beyond reason. That very home, sweet home, 
is the creation of the church, and it cannot 
long be sweet or restful when the church loses 
its vigorous spiritual life or the home is sep- 
arated from it. This cannot too often be said. 
Home will be enjoyed all the more if its pleas- 
ures are adjusted to real activity in a broad and 
stirring church work in the suburb. Lounging 
in absolute inactivity is not real recuperation to 
a normal mind. It is itself wearisome and after 
a while intolerable, and so in these people who 
plead for exemption from Christian work that 
they may rest at home, we see the strangely in- 
consistent development of extended and exciting 
Sunday dissipation, and long hours of absence 
from the home on tiresome rides and visits. They 
cannot stay all the time in their homes with sat- 
isfaction to their active natures. 

There are splendid Christian people, on the 



76 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

other hand, who have learned that the need of 
fellowship for highest joy, and of usefulness to 
others, is met exactly and fully by a larger 
church activity, and then the home becomes 
sweetest of all and continues so to the end of 
life. 

3. The danger of continuing to hold church 
membership in the distant city. This is a most 
perplexing problem for really fair and discrim- 
inating study. The city church in many cases 
sorely needs the attendance, the financial support, 
and service to the extent he can render, of the 
wealthy suburbanite. Lifelong associations of 
the most tender sort bind him to that church, and 
if he is past middle life he hesitates to break 
these, knowing the difficulty of forming new 
associations. He hopes to attach his children as 
firmly as himself by regular Sunday morning de- 
votion to the city church. But that church is 
rapidly changing in spite of every effort to hold 
all its people, and the children as a matter of fact 
are not acquiring their parents' love for it. The 
children attend Sunday-school in the suburban 
church and Sunday night service there. The 
discerning Christian father will decide that he 
must join that church for the sake of his children, 
and some of them are wise indeed to conclude 
further that they must throw themselves into 
that church with all their experience and ability 
as Christian workers. Many Christian parents 
are not so observant nor so prompt in doing the 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 77 

safe thing for their homes and future, and they 
relapse into irregularity in all church-going and 
into loss of real interest in either place. They 
cannot work efficiently in the distant city church 
and they excuse themselves because of member- 
ship in the city from any important work in the 
country. Multitudes of able men and women, 
whom the Kingdom of Christ cannot spare, thus 
have discharged themselves early in life. It is a 
grave peril for all concerned, to the city church 
lest by selfishly holding on to men whom it can- 
not help nor use, that church forfeits the blessing 
of God, to the country church, and most of all 
to the man himself. 

4. The danger grows if the churchman in the 
suburbs keeps all his other interests in the city — 
if he goes to the city for all intellectual associa- 
tions, for social entertainment, and for his 
friendships. Of course he must necessarily look 
there for the best for a long time to come. But 
there is every good reason, and every selfish 
one, for beginning to plan some intellectual re- 
sources in his neighborhood, and for forming 
such friendships as may be. Otherwise there 
will be for him no neighborliness and no com- 
munity interest. The isolation of families on 
crowded city streets and avenues with constantly 
changing tenants, may be unavoidable in large 
measure, but to carry it info the permanent settle- 
ments of the open country is unchristian and silly 
pride. Intimate friendships are not formed in a 



78 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

day and may be left to slow growth but a kind 
neighborliness is possible at once to be cultivated. 
It costs nothing and it blesses those who give 
and those who receive. 

5. There is lastly the danger of extremes of 
riches and poverty. The retinue of servants and 
serving men about the suburban mansion form a 
class distinct from the family. The master and 
servants, the lady and her maid, in many cases 
go to the same church and introduce social caste 
there. It is a perplexing problem to be solved 
only by spiritually intensifying church activity 
and Christlike love. 

Now after this assuredly full exhibit of the 
difficulties let us look as fairly at the advantages 
for Christian work in the suburban church. 

1. The church is more important relatively 
than in the city. It is the only public building 
and its bell the only sound that breaks the Sab- 
bath-like quiet during the week and wakens sweet 
memories on Sunday. This gives the church 
a great opportunity. 

2. Fellowship between the churches in a 
suburb is usually close and genuine. The pastors 
in many cases are intimate chums and their con- 
gregations fuse easily and strongly for general 
town enterprises. This gives civic and commun- 
ity opportunity of a commanding character. 

3. There are more fully equipped pastors than 
in the towns. Larger salaries are paid, a thor- 
oughly educated ministry is demanded and se- 



THE RURAL SITUATION. yg 

cured, and this constitutes a factor of very great 
power. 

4. For the same reason the laymen in these 
churches are abler and more influential. The 
laymen in suburbs who go into the churches 
as Sunday-school superintendents and teachers, 
as vestrymen, trustees or deacons, are men and 
women of large education, broad general culture, 
and experience in the management of great enter- 
prises. 

5. There are, therefore, larger financial re- 
sources as a rule for Christian work. The pas- 
tor may plan many helpful adjuncts of the 
church with freedom and if he skilfully develops 
them he will have no lack of money to work 
efficiently for the community. 

6. The children of the best homes in most 
cases at once and the young people, are acces- 
sible to the local church. The parents now 
are more difficult to win, or at least, the fathers 
may be. But they will come later if the church 
ministers helpfully to the young people. 

7. Where the town is incorporated it is a gain, 
and where it is not, steps should be taken to 
develop a strong and excellent local government. 

8. There is special opportunity for some lines 
of summer work. The church is often at its best 
in the summer, the attendance at maximum, and 
the Sunday-school is largest. Very attractive 
out-door evening services may be planned. A 
grove near by may be seated for lectures and 



80 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

special musical entertainments. Simple games 
and amusements may be provided for the com- 
munity at immense gain in fellowship and the 
neighborhood spirit. In a few choicely situated 
places even larger courses of study and summer 
assemblies are possible. 

On the whole the suburb has a formidable 
spiritual inertia because the erstwhile powerful 
forces of the city have come to a standstill. But 
in aggressive push upon this condition, there is 
a corresponding rich reward. When the forces 
again move they possess the power they had in 
the city without meeting the obstacles of the city. 
There is no better field to the church that is 
filled with the Holy Spirit in a modern and com- 
plete church organization of all her members and 
resources. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A GREAT FUTURE FOR RURAL DISTRICTS. 

The surprising reversal, in a decade, of the 
drift of population from being city-ward to be- 
coming rural* is only one of many momentous 
changes on the horizon of our country districts. 
This drift of the people so strongly to the country 
is itself a result of changed conditions, rather 
than a cause of them, though it brings still 
further improvements there, and thus accelerates 
the movement. There is profound interest in it 
for economic reasons, and also sociologically, 
but no less for Christian life which is our chief 
concern here. 

The prospect for the American farmer and his 
farm was never before so alluring. The farmer's 
work is to become a scientific profession, and the 
growing intellectual ability of the man with the 
hoe in his broadening range of studies related to 
the farm is a matter of common observation. 

* See Chap. II. Census of 1900 compared with 1890 as to 
urban and rural populations. Estimated populations since 
(U. S. Census Bulletins 1906) shows drift to country con- 
tinues. 

81 



82 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

His college-bred son is willing to return to the 
farm and spend his life upon it with scientific 
enthusiasm. And not only the farm but the 
cross-roads village and the country town are 
destined to share in a wonderful future already 
well begun. 

Let us trace some of the plainer lines of this 
development, and with eyes always open to their 
effect upon the spread of Christ's Kingdom in 
country places, carefully consider them. 

I. The great movement for good roads which 
is receiving so great favor in large appropria- 
tions in many states of the Union. Even the 
Lincoln Memorial is to be a great highway from 
Washington to Gettysburg, so great is the en- 
thusiasm for scientific and permanent road build- 
ing. What do good roads signify? All that 
closer and more frequent communication and in- 
termingling of people may bring to pass. For 
business it means less wear and tear, more rapid 
marketing, and even with slight increase of tax- 
ation, greatly reduced expenses and larger in- 
come. For the church it means increased at- 
tendance from longer distances, an uninterrupted 
series of meetings made possible, and closer fel- 
lowship of the people. The wet weather ob- 
stacle is largely removed by good roads. What 
is to become of the " dry weather Christian " left 
without excuse, in the new era? 

In the light of these advantages think of the 
millions of dollars appropriated by Pennsylvania, 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 8$ 

Maryland, and other states for the scientific 
building of great highways all over their com- 
monwealths. In many cases the states require 
equal appropriations from the counties, thus 
doubling the money for the movement. Think of 
the automobile influence everywhere compelling 
the construction and maintenance of other high- 
ways of the best kind. There is vast improve- 
ment already and this movement is sure to spread 
until every church is accessible in winter and 
summer, in rain or shine, by foot or carriage, to 
all its people almost as much as in the city. 
There will be no more lonely farm-houses, no 
homes separated from civilization by miles of im- 
passable mud lanes, and no closed churches when 
it rains. The lazy member must look for another 
excuse. 

2. Electric railway development is progressing 
with ever increasing breadth. Most of these rail- 
ways are profitable, for the expense of power, 
wages, equipment, and maintenance is far below 
that of steam railways. These electric cars climb 
the hills and spin through the valleys in regions 
beyond where any other could go with small ex- 
pense of leveling, grading, or tunneling. There 
are counties in the old states with a remarkable 
network of electric railways reaching to every 
part, so that one can make headquarters in the 
large city returning to it every night, and reach 
every little town and crossroads for afternoon and 
evening meetings. Conventions can be held in 



84 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

the central place and people from twenty towns 
and surrounding country can attend day and 
evening and return home for the night. The 
small expense for the trip does not exclude even 
the poor from such stimulating meetings and 
fellowship. The frequency of these trips, their 
routes often to the very doors of the people, and 
their short stops, make them the ideal carriages 
of the common people. No king one hundred 
years ago could have a coach warmed in winter, 
lighted up to read at night, running smoothly with 
scarcely a jolt, and more swiftly than his fastest 
horses. Through the loving Providence of the 
Heavenly Father his poor children have them 
now. 

Shall we not regard this electric car as the new 
message of the Father to reconstruct our plans 
for Christianizing in the country? It is a 
marvelous addition to Christian resources. Let 
the imagination loose to define what changes it 
will inevitably produce in the rural home, in 
business, in education, on the farm, and above 
all on the religious and rural life of three-fourths 
of the American people ! It has already brought 
about new attractions in the situation of country 
homes, in the number of visits the country young 
people make to the city, and in the mutual in- 
fluencing of city and country. But when it has 
had a new generation to work upon from earliest 
childhood it will produce a new race in the farm- 
house. 



THE RURAL SITUA TION. 



85 



3. The telephone is common in large sections 
of the country and in towns it is more generally 
used by families than in cities. The annual cost 
in cities is prohibitive to ordinary people but the 
smaller charge, generally about one-fourth that in 
cities, in rural communities puts it within reach 
of almost every home. Pastors in these towns 
almost universally have it and they can call a 
meeting of their deacons, trustees, of their Sun- 
day-school teachers, and of certain influential 
families in a half hour without rising from their 
study chair, the few who have no telephone being 
reached by their near neighbors with any mes- 
sage. I have known a large meeting to be 
worked up by several telephones in a day. The 
pastor calls up the home in affliction or distress 
every morning and sends his sympathy by light- 
ning. He saves time from errands of many 
kinds for larger reading and study, and so does 
the reading-loving farmer save hours from trips 
to the store or freight office, or other places, and 
spends them upon splendid farm journals, books 
and general magazines. What a blessing all this 
signifies ! No one but the farmer knows what 
weary hours and days he spent upon deep mud 
roads on errands the telephone does for him in 
an instant now. He can now have home also in 
longer fellowship. The telephone in large meas- 
ure ends the farm loneliness and its isolation 
from the present day world. The whole family 
use it for social conversation. Their home is in 



86 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

constant neighborliness with other farms and 
with the town or city miles away. It is very in- 
teresting to watch the smaller children from six 
years up going to talk with playmates or little 
friends on the telephone. They will never know the 
old loneliness at all, and we shall soon have a 
generation of farm people with a fine social con- 
sciousness and splendid community of interests. 
It is a fascinating mental excursion of the im- 
agination again to try to define the changes 
rapidly coming by this gathering of multitudes 
of separated farm-houses into one neighborhood 
connected by these wonderful nerves of thought, 
feeling, and new purposes, rather like one vast 
living organism. Summing up the transforma- 
tion wrought by good roads, electric railways, 
and the telephone on the old farm and the little 
village, it amounts to a revolution to larger relig- 
ious and moral possibilities. 

4. Rural free delivery of mails is another in- 
calculable addition to the farmer's power and en- 
joyment. The growth of it has been amazing. 
Rural delivery was first officially suggested by 
Postmaster-General John Wanamaker in his an- 
nual report for 1891. Congress was so slow to 
adopt it that the first three experimental routes 
were established as late as October 1, 1896 in 
West Virginia. But in nine months it had ex- 
tended to 83 routes scattered over 29 states. 

The number of rural routes in operation 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 87 

throughout the United States, June 1, 1909,* was 
40,637 served by 40,508 carriers. All these are 
daily routes except 668 which are tri-weekly, but 
no mail is served on Sundays or holidays. Rural 
delivery reaches approximately 20,000,000 peo- 
ple in all the states and territories, except 
Alaska, and in all parts of the states and ter- 
ritories except unsettled or sparsely settled por- 
tions. The cost to date has been about one hun- 
dred and seventy millions of dollars, the present 
annual cost being nearly thirty-six millions, or 
almost two dollars expended by the Government 
for postal facilities for every man, woman and 
child in these rural sections. 

Here is a national army of forty thousand 
men, almost as large as the regular army of 
soldiers, on daily duty to establish fortifications 
for the national welfare in diffusing general in- 
telligence and developing social ties which will 
be more powerful than ironclads or material 
ramparts. It staggers the imagination to fore- 
see what this rural delivery alone will accom- 
plish for American civilization in fifty years. 
When we remember that it has in twelve years 
permeated to every village and cross-roads in 
every state and territory, that it is therefore na- 
tional in its scope, and that it is a daily service 
at every farmer's door or at the end of the short 
lane, who can estimate what an addition to all 

* Letter to author from Fourth Assistant Postmaster- 
General, June 24, 1909. 



BS RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

his other newly acquired advantages is the daily 
free delivery of mail to the farm and the cross- 
roads village. The metropolitan daily news- 
papers are read before noon in farm homes two 
hundred miles from the city in every direction. 
The farm is a vital part of the great busy world, 
and all the interests of humanity are discussed 
by the farmer boy and his father in the barn, and 
in the kitchen by the mother and daughter. The 
newspaper is a mighty civilizer and in many 
respects goes before to prepare the way for 
Christianizing. Let the church be alert to fol- 
low where the newspaper clears the way. That 
equally wonderful forum for everything in the 
welfare of man, the monthly magazine, lies on 
the farm-house table under the brilliant coal-oil 
lamp at every issue. The young people's library 
is next, already growing in many such homes. 
Larger correspondence between friends also has 
grown, this resulting in more frequent visits, 
and thus the farm children and their parents are 
becoming really traveled people. So naturally 
and inevitably does one movement of civilization 
connect with another. It is the same old farm 
and the same little village but not the same slow, 
uninformed, isolated farmer and his family. 
And it will not long be the same old farm nor 
the same uninteresting village as we have already 
noted. 

To. the children and young people these in- 
novations are &s of birthright. They know of 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 89 

nothing else in many sections and they grow by 
them intellectually, morally, and broadly intelli- 
gent and sympathetic citizens of the world from 
the start. Think of that splendid product, the 
manhood and character from the country in the 
past, surely the future will have a much abler 
and more refined man and woman to pour into 
the cities or to retain on the farm in large num- 
bers. 

Small packages from near-by towns are now 
authorized to be carried by the mail men pri- 
vately. The Postal Package will come some time 
soon in spite of opposition by private transporta- 
tion companies and long delay by Congress, 
greatly trying to the people. But even with the 
exorbitant present charges for carriage, the 
farmer is shopping by mail in great cities. Have 
you ever been in the village home when the 
bulky annual .catalogue of the mail order house 
arrives? Have you seen the family pore over 
it day after day at their leisure? The catalogue 
is itself an education in the comforts and con- 
venieces of highest civilization, and the farm- 
house and the village home are discussing the 
luxuries formerly only found in finest city homes. 
We could here describe farm homes of modest 
means that are cultured, elegant and delightful 
places. 

5. Postal Savings Banks also will follow, the 
farmer will then anticipate a retired life before 
old age, and prepare to make it attractive with 



go RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

travel, fellowship, and larger usefulness to man- 
kind. 

6. All these new things will mean a large in- 
termingling of city people and country people 
farther out each year. The suburb is now here 
but some city families already go out to country 
towns and remote villages. Their fine mansions 
with great lawns of many acres and forest are 
springing up everywhere. The people of city 
and country are next neighbors in mutual re- 
spect. Into the village come the ideals and the 
pushing activity of the city, and to the city family 
the meditation and repose of the country. What 
then will the farmer of to-morrow become? It 
is indeed a glorious prospect, but shall the church 
be the last to see what it signifies of opportunity 
for her to bring the Kingdom of Christ into large 
realization in rural districts? 

7. The farmer is only in the beginning of 
great help from Governmental agencies and in- 
vestigations. It is almost a new book of miracles 
which is published annually by the Hon, James 
Wilson, United States Secretary of Agriculture. 
Really wonders of advancement are made on 
American farms from the untiring research by 
eminent scientists into every matter that affects 
soils, best seeds, largest possible crops, methods 
of planting, protection of crops, harvesting, and 
marketing; how untold millions of dollars are 
saved, and the labor of the toiling lightened and 
more richly rewarded at every turn; how a new 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



9* 



interest in all his work amounting to enthusiasm 
as for a learned profession has been created ; and 
how the dignity of farm work has grown in pub- 
lic esteem. Agricultural colleges are training 
for the new marvels of farming; farmers' insti- 
tutes are profoundly discussing every problem of 
their new profession under the lead of state and 
national government experts, sixty such experts 
being employed by Pennsylvania and scores by 
Wisconsin and other states, every winter, to go 
two by two, or often three by three, on their 
apostolic tours for better farms in all parts of 
these states; a richly entertaining and scientific 
literature about farm work and its possibilities 
has sprung up in a decade ; * and now former 
President Roosevelt has stirred ug all the farmers 
and village dwellers to consider improvements 
in their homes and environment, their schools 
and village conditions, appointed a learned Com- 
mission to confer with them about it, and on one 
day,f the earnest men of the soil and the plow 
met in public gatherings all over America. They 
discussed certain questions and suggestions sent 
them by the Commission and the wonderful in- 
terest in it all is shown by one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand papers from them. These 
answers of the farmers treat in an illuminating 
way of the wonderful, new life coming to country 
America. 

* See Section II. chap. VII. for larger treatment of these 
movements. 

t The first simultaneous Institutes, Dec. 5, 1908. 



9 2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

No other business is considered by the Govern- 
ment with such paternal solicitude and helpful- 
ness. Its results already stagger the imagination 
to measure, but it is only within ten years that 
really practical help has been given farmers by 
agricultural colleges, and as yet only a small 
fraction of the farmers of America have been 
reached by their helpful movements, and some 
of those reached have been all too slow to avail 
themselves of the valuable instruction. Yet 
many pages might be filled with the success of 
the new type of farmer in his crops, his stock, 
his fruit, and his dairy. And the new spirit is 
rapidly spreading as the reception to former 
President Roosevelt's Commission amply gives 
evidence. It was predicted that agricultural 
communities would resent the President's effort 
as impertinent meddling into their affairs. But 
with few exceptions all the farm journals en- 
thusiastically supported the movement, and the 
immediate result of gathering what has already 
been accomplished in home and village improve- 
ments points the way for all, and immensely 
stimulates progress. 

Government enterprise in reclaiming from the 
desert millions of acres of the best land, the 
stupendous schemes of irrigation,* the scientific 

* Census Bulletin 231 gives total value of crops for 1899 on 
irrigated lands in the arid states and territories $84,433,438, 
total acreage 5,7 1 1,965, first cost per acre $7.80, annual cost of 
maintenance per acre only 38 cents, and average value of crop 
per acre $14.81 a year, nearly twice the first cost of the 
system. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



93 



analyses of soils which produced surprising ways 
of fertilizing great sections hitherto almost 
worthless, the remarkable discovery of " dry 
farming" other vast areas, are marvelous 
achievements. The introduction of new grasses, 
plants, fruit, and better stock of seeds from for- 
eign lands and by culture are other really monu- 
mental contributions. Farm pests and parasites 
are being annihilated. Farm animals are having 
a real evolution almost miraculous, one south- 
western farmer having crossed the ox with the 
buffalo and produced a permanent new flesh- 
bearing animal of finest qualities, among many 
such. And that wonderful wizard with plants, 
Luther Burbank, of California, produces new 
fodder of nourishing richness from the cactus, 
and new fruits, grains, and flowers. 

All these new aspects of farming make it now 
America's wonderland for science and inventive 
genius. Men of scholarship and high character 
are going into it, and who can predict what it will 
be even in ten years? The shift of general in- 
terest from city problems to the farm is very 
significant. Let us specially be grateful as we 
think of what it will mean for the country church 
and for the young people on the farm and in the 
village, and let us not fear to construct large 
plans for the church and for the community to 
meet these opportunities. The organization for 
Christian work* which we propose later will not 
seem large in the face of such a future. 
* See Sections II. and III. 



9 4 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

8. Consider the present extraordinary prosper- 
ity of the farmer. Panics may rack great cities, 
smaller cities and manufactures, but the farmer 
gets ever higher prices and disposes of all he can 
grow. What should this mean for better homes, 
finer churches, and larger investment in all 
Christian work? 

9. The great growth of cities, it is self-evi- 
dent, will stimulate a correspondingly great de- 
velopment of farms, for the farms must support 
the cities. It can easily be gathered from census 
returns that our best farms are located in the 
older and most populous states. The yield of 
wheat for the acre in Massachusetts is fifty per 
cent, above the average of the whole country. * 
The great city is not deteriorating and depleting 
the rural districts around it but actually and 
most wonderfully developing them. Here the 
highest prices are received for all productions, 
here intensive garden farming is carried on with 
its specializing of farmers into growers of par- 
ticular crops, and here the increased facilities of 
travel eliminates the middleman largely in the 
farmer's business. 

The specializing of farm industries is an ex- 
ceedingly interesting evolution of a few decades 
past. There are now specialist growers of 
celery, of asparagus, of strawberries, of melons, 
and other vegetables and fruit; there are orange 
men, apple men, peach men, banana men, and 

* Census of 1900 — 35 bushels per acre to 23 bushels per 
acre in other states, in round figures. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



95 



grape men, there are great duck farms where the 
little ducklings are forced by feeding several 
times a day and even aroused at night by electric 
lighting for another stuffing meal, so that in ten 
weeks from the egg a five pound duck is ready 
for market and twenty-four cents wholesale a 
pound is the farmer's reward for it. The im- 
mense egg farms, squab farms, and other 
specializings in poultry and in large animals are 
well known. And the various kinds of dairy 
farms have grown to immense proportions near 
great cities. 

This proximity to city life develops the farm 
home in every luxury of modern civilization. 
The young people are fully satisfied to remain 
there and with scientific enthusiasm still further 
develop the wonders of new stock of animals and 
plants. Thus the city and the farm join hands 
in mutual growth in wealth and in the comforts 
of civilization. 

io. The rapid elimination of the saloon from 
rural districts goes sweeping on. Three-fourths 
of rural America now has no saloon, and it 
would take a volume to detail all that this really 
signifies to young and old, for economic, social, 
and moral well being. The writer has recently 
visited for days and weeks rural sections with 
the saloon and without it, and has seen the great- 
ness of the difference. 

II. The growing enthusiasm for the farm has 
reached the young man from college. A maga- 



96 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

zine * has just published the true story of a splen- 
did farm with its cultured proprietor, whose son 
after a thorough classical and scientific training 
in college goes back with eagerness to spend 
his life on it. The scientific problems of agri- 
culture, the new and exact methods of tilling, 
and the comforts, social connections and attrac- 
tions of the business with modern conveniences 
make it really, as we have said, a learned pro- 
fession and a delightful occupation. 

12. These new alignments of rural people with 
the world mean that henceforth they will share 
in the world's marvelous modern progress. For 
a long time the country was left far behind in 
the march. And the advance of the world is with 
accelerating rapidity. As much progress in 
every way was made in the first fifty years of 
the nineteenth century as in hundreds of years 
before. The next twenty-five years made even 
more than those wonderful fifty; and the last 
twenty-five years of that century twice as much 
beyond that. The first ten years of the new 
century will speed the world on higher relatively 
than any twenty-five previously have done. The 
imagination is burdened in attempting a flight 
ahead. It is comforting to know that country 
America is keeping step in all the forward 
movement. 

13. The new education is pushing to the doors 
of the farm home. There are township high 

* World's Work, Feb., Mar. 1909. 



THE RURAL SITUATION. 



97 



schools which receive the pupils from the dis- 
trict school and prepare them for college. The 
grading of the district school, the better teachers 
in many places, and the larger courses of study 
are inspiring advances. 

14. The country is catching the enthusiasm of 
the age for nature study and when once fairly 
begun it will sweep through towns and villages 
as it has in certain cities. What rich fields lie 
at the doors of the boys and girls, and the men 
and women, in rural districts for this delightful 
study ! The native birds alone furnish a life- 
time with material for thorough observation ; and 
the teeming insect life, and the plants and flowers 
are other fields for specialists. This nature study 
is now internationally organized and the boy on 
the farm can receive regular contributions of 
gorgeous insects from tropical regions, and from 
the Orient in exchange for the native specimens 
which he can prepare in superabundance. This 
will still further connect his farm home with the 
civilized world and broaden and mature splendid 
character. 

Here then is a new thing under the sun, the 
gentleman farmer loving his plow and his 
harvester, proud of his educated sons and daugh- 
ters, who are glad to stay with him in the cul- 
tured home they have constructed. He is ready 
to join church leaders awake to the new situa- 
tion, and he is able to plan with them to meet it. 



98 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

The church * as usual is the last to arouse 
herself to understand the civilization her gospel 
has produced, but surely she is not going to 
drowse any longer in the midst of multitudinous 
open doors in rural districts. Let her forget the 
things that are behind and anticipate, as business 
men do, the demands of the near future, to 
realize the call of God to her in the new Country 
America. 

* See splendid exceptions of churches in Sec. III. 



SECTION II. 

HOW CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 
MUST BE SPREAD AND MADE 
CONTROLLING IN THE COUN- 
TRY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE TWOFOLD WAY OF PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL. 

In many illuminating symbols and parables 
Christ teaches that there are two ways of extend- 
ing the kingdom he came to establish among 
men. 

By one way the kingdom of God spreads in 
the earth like the branches of a great tree far 
out to protect and shelter; this is shown by the 
mustard tree grown from a tiny germ to im- 
mense height and breadth. By the other way it 
expands like leaven, the leaven which is hidden 
in the meal and kept in that vital relation to it 
for a transforming work of particle after 
particle. 

Again, one way is that the disciples are the 
light of the world which streams far out be- 
yond personal contact ; the other is that they are 
the salt preserving the purity of all who unite 
with them. 

Of these two ways, the light spreading must 
signify the conquest of the world by gospel 
truth and ideals which has resulted in Christian 
civilization, the development of all Christian in- 

IOI 



102 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

stitutions like hospitals, orphanages, benevolent 
movements, the extension of Christian truth 
about the rights and duties of man, human rela- 
tions, and all that we now know as the influence 
of Christ upon society, upon fundamental law, 
and upon all world movements; the other way 
is the saving of individual men by the new 
spiritual life symbolized by infusing into the 
dead mass of meal a transforming leaven, the 
leaven which here stands for the kingdom of 
heaven, and then uniting them into a church to 
be mutually preservative as salt. The disciples 
as salt to each other do not purify, for Christ 
alone is the purifier as Saviour. The function of 
the church, however, is well expressed as salt to 
its members. 

It is foolish to talk of the purifying power of 
salt as any one can see who will experiment with 
it on tainted meat or decaying vegetables. 

In the values set upon the kingdom of heaven 
this twofold distinction is continued. To one 
view it is a treasure, probably a treasure box of 
large size, found in a field and containing pre- 
sumably money, tools, weapons, and other arti- 
cles for every-day use. This is the value of 
salvation for the individual's supply of his needs. 
A comfort in sorrow, a weapon in temptation, a 
supply for hunger and thirst for righteousness 
in life and character; a large amount of money 
also which could be converted into the neces- 
saries of daily life is what the treasure box prob- 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 



103 



ably contained. But the other parable of value 
is a pearl, the royal symbol of beauty, of glory, 
of noble achievement ; it may finely represent the 
ideals of Christianity for society, like the brother- 
hood of man, the inalienable rights of the in- 
dividual, of the woman, of the child, the world- 
wide democracy, the sonship with God, and other 
ideals and standards of Christianity for civiliza- 
tion. 

This pearl stands for the immeasurable influ- 
ence of Jesus and his gospel in the world at 
large. That influence has struck the colossal 
image that Nebuchadnezzar saw, the world- 
wide empires, fearful despotisms, gigantic op- 
pressions of men, and ground them to powder. 
Child murder has gone forever, widow burnings, 
witch burnings, slavery, torture of prisoners, 
cruelties unnamable, oligarchies, spoliation by 
kings and other horrors and wrongs ; law has 
come, merciful, just, impartially administered; 
institutions educational, benevolent, rescuing ; love 
has come into human intercourse in a thousand 
ways in business and society. All these, through 
the wide-spread influence of Jesus and the preach- 
ing of the ideals and standards of the gospel. 

The other way is the salvation of men one by 
one, Christ's personal work in the individual 
soul. He does this by dropping the seed deep into 
the soil of the man's heart and causing it to ma- 
ture in the fine wheat. But in another parable- 
picture we see this wheat in the midst of tares, 



104 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

the tares and the wheat growing together until 
the harvest. He could not here set forth the 
influence of the wheat upon its neighbor tares, 
but this influence is inevitable and through 
Christ is very powerful and revolutionary. It is 
set forth in the leaven where the individual 
Christian's inner life is also imparted to those 
around him by the power of Christ. 

These pairs of parables move along the same 
two lines. They exhibit the two general ways 
of the spread of the principles of the gospel 
which we are seeking to put into control of rural 
communities. There is little need now of em- 
phasizing the duty of a propaganda for indi- 
vidual accessions to Christ and his church. 
Christian people clearly apprehend this gospel 
method, but they do not often so clearly discern 
that the world is being conquered for Christ by 
his truth as well as by his salvation. Both of 
these lines of propaganda, by the leaven and by 
the mustard tree, by the salt and by the light, by 
the seed dropped into the heart, and by the in- 
fluence of the church without, that is by the 
accession of new disciples and by the spread of 
ideals, have been in operation since the day of 
Pentecost. The preaching of the whole gospel 
of Christ, spiritual, ethical, social, will always 
start both lines of development. The statistics 
of Christianity to-day must include the work of 
legislatures all over the world, the transforma- 
tion of business of all kinds, the institutions of 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 05 

civilization, the educational movement, and the 
new kind of popular and humane governments in 
all the world. 

By the conquest of his truth, the sense in 
which he said to Pilate he had come to be the 
world's king, Jesus Christ is rapidly coming to 
his world-wide enthronement. By universal 
acknowledgment he is the prince of all teachers 
of true righteousness. And while we insist on 
that as only the first battle won, and that his 
victory is not complete until he has become every 
man's individual Saviour, we will not undervalue 
the wonderful meaning of it. The truth of 
Christ prevails. 

Our problem of methods, therefore, is in Chris- 
tianizing country places to discover what sort 
of organization or organizations are required to 
spread the kingdom most effectively within the 
church to largest numbers of individual con- 
versions, and what movements outside the 
church will effect a conquering Christian civiliza- 
tion. This second series of movements should 
be discussed next in order; it is the social work 
of the gospel, and then the evangelistic work. 

The actual situation in the country is to be re- 
garded. We have seen this situation to be, in the 
midst of a brilliant promise for the future, usu- 
ally an unattractive and struggling church, and 
outside of the church few if any movements in 
general for mutual helpfulness. What can be 
done? 



CHAPTER IX. 

GOSPEL PRINCIPLES FOR CHRIST'S WORKERS. 

Christian work surely ought to be done in 
accordance with Christ's declared principles for 
the worker. Much earnest work has been un- 
successful because the worker has failed to rec- 
ognize Christ's principles or has ignored them. 
Even the every-day work of the world is neces- 
sarily a real co-operation with God's laws in phys- 
ical nature or in economics, and many of the 
principles we shall name, or the substance of 
them, have been adopted by the world. In de- 
veloping a Christian civilization, we must still 
more sincerely and fully live by them. 

What, then, are the principles underlying 
Gospel ways of working? 

I. God is ever for organization, sinful man all 
for chaos and anarchy. The perversely blind op- 
position in country churches to every step to- 
ward a more complete organization of the local 
church is one of the relics of barbarism, of which 
there are a curiously large number persisting 
106 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 



107 



to our day. If we are to be workers with God, 
we shall see that he everywhere has marvelously 
organized his work. The stars of the universe 
are in wonderful systems, our earth is one of 
them with the sun as the center and with every 
planet forming a marvelous machine, working 
with almost perfect regularity; all flowers and 
leaves are constructed with mathematical preci- 
sion; the bodies of animals and of man are in- 
imitable organisms ; and even stones and sand 
in modern science and philosophy are more 
wonderful constructions than man's mind was 
thought to be formerly. 

The stock objection to complete church or- 
ganization is that the power of the Holy Spirit 
is more important. This seems very religious 
until we remember that the Holy Spirit, the 
Spirit of God looking for human bodies through 
which to express himself, requires such bodies 
to be holy, consecrated, knowing the truth, and 
united with his people. Which means well 
organized individually as the apostles were after 
three years' daily training by the most wonder- 
ful of teachers, practice in preaching and 
Christly works, and ten days' incessant prayer. 
(Acts 1:2; Romans 12:1.) The power did 
not, however, come upon them individually when 
apart but when in one accord in one place. It 
came upon the organized church when every 
member of it was a worker. Doubtless, the 
Holy Spirit will always come upon a church in 



108 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

that condition but such a condition to-day can 
be achieved only by most complex and complete 
organization. Let the objector try to realize it 
without organization if he can. 

In what a distressing condition of half-de- 
veloped, less than quarter-developed life, the 
church is found after so many attempts to do it 
without adequate organization! The average 
church uses about one-tenth of her membership 
as real workers, many of these holding four or 
five offices; she gets regular income from only 
one-third of them and few of these are propor- 
tionate and systematic givers or cheerful givers ; 
she makes personal workers in soul winning of 
less than one in fifty of them, has habits of 
church-going in not half of them, and the prayer- 
meeting habit in one-twelfth of them. Yet there 
are pastors in towns and villages, — never mind 
those in cities — who solemnly argue that the 
church is over-organized! As well might a 
man, two-thirds paralyzed, and stiff, think he was 
too active because the other third became some- 
what over-tired from extra work. 

The question of the power of the Holy Spirit 
versus organization is like asking which is more 
important, the steam or the locomotive? Try 
steam without a body of perfectly organized ma- 
terial to express it and of what value is it? No 
one of course wants the locomotive alone, for 
there is no antagonism between the finest modern 
type of a hundred ton engine and the highest 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 09 

steam pressure in her safe boiler. Rather, the 
splendid locomotive invites the steam at once to 
be given to her. So does a magnificently organ- 
ized man like Paul most fully express the Holy 
Spirit, and so does a church vital in every 
member to his last talent by a marvelous organ- 
ization really invite the Holy Spirit to enter into 
her many-sided work. He will there have his 
largest opportunity for the continuation of really 
Christlike work which is the Spirit's mission 
in the Church. 

The man who thinks no organization is needed, 
pleading for " a minimum of human effort," urges 
a return to Pentecostal conditions for the con- 
quering times of the gospel. Well, let us indeed 
return to the preparation which the Apostles had 
for the Spirit's outpouring in Jerusalem. Has 
our objector thought of what this preparation 
really included ? Jesus gathered his apostles from 
fishermen, tax-gatherers, and other occupations, 
and as faithful Jews they were less ignorant of 
the Bible than our ordinary converts are, not so 
greatly absorbed in business and material inter- 
ests as present day accessions, with a simplicity 
of conditions in their environment not now even 
in our towns and villages, and with no diverting 
and confusing newspapers and other daily sen- 
sations to interfere with his training. 

Let us give the more difficult material in the 
natures of present-day people three years of con- 
stant daily teaching on great truths of the gospel, 



HO RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

as Jesus did his disciples in preparation for Pen- 
tecost. Our additional supreme task is that we 
cannot have such a teacher as they had and it 
would take many years more to reach the same 
stage of spiritual growth. Christ's teaching was 
daily and all day, every day for three years. He 
organized them into bands and trained them for 
wonderful work for the three years. He per- 
formed before them miracles of healing, of resur- 
rection of the dead, of power over Nature, and 
trained them in faith and practice so that they 
could do the same wonders. They had experi- 
ences that will never more come to men in just 
the form they had them in witnessing Christ's 
glory, his sufferings, death, resurrection, and 
ascension. An untrained, unorganized, simple- 
hearted people were they? Let some one calcu- 
late how long it would require Normal Teacher 
Training Classes, Young People's Societies, 
Brotherhoods, Mission Bands, the Organized 
Bible Class movement, and every other conceiv- 
able intellectual, social, and benevolent movement 
to bring his church to where the disciples, leav- 
ing the Mount of Olives after Jesus' ascension, 
actually stood in wonderful training.* 

Then after his church has been brought to 
such training let the objector try the spiritual 
organization of a ten-day prayer meeting like 
that in Jerusalem. If he has achieved, by a very 
complete organization of the church to-day, the 

* See Dr. A. B. Bruce's " The Training of the Twelve." 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 1 1 

same condition as the disciples had, he will have 
Pentecost after ten days of such prayer, as prob- 
ably his people never practiced before. Is it not 
the most superficial study of the early church 
that fails to apprehend what an almost perfect 
organization would be required to bring about 
the same conditions now? 

In the same unthinking way, there are many 
who set individual work over against thorough 
organization, failing to see that the initiative to 
individual work by any large number of church 
members comes only after a superior organ- 
ization of the church. Let these men show a 
church without much organization where every 
man is a successful personal worker, a fine Bible 
teacher, a large giver, or a splendid Christian 
character. How will they answer, on the other 
hand, the question of the Lord when he inquires 
for the unemployed talents of nine-tenths of his 
disciples there, for the reason why so few have 
ever won a soul to Christ, and why with over- 
flowing wealth around us his church goes beg- 
ging for the pennies on the pitiable Sunday plate ? 
Will they declare that every individual must an- 
swer for himself and that they exhorted indi- 
viduals to do these very things ? Why, then, have 
a church organization at all if it must nullify 
itself and declare that individual effort is all 
that is planned? Especially when the resulting 
lack of individual effort exhibits such a fearful 
failure. Should not the really godly men, who 



U2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

take such a position against organized work, 
re-examine the Scriptural grounds for their 
attitude? 

The argument for individual effort is not 
against prior church organization but logically 
for it. A very complex and large organization is 
required to put every individual into his best 
adapted place employing most or all of his talents. 
And only then will any large proportion of indi- 
viduals do other work beyond their part in the 
organization. The car runs on alone after it has 
been well started as part of the long train. 

Every step forward in Christian civilization is 
toward fuller organization. There are no wheels 
within wheels in a condition of savagery. Every 
step away from organization of society or of the 
church is toward chaos and lawlessness. There 
is no power in the wheels within wheels them- 
selves but they furnish the only medium for the 
fire and the spirit within to be effective. The man 
who unites with the church has the right to ex- 
pect the opportunity of organized work for his 
efforts. " One a thousand, two ten thousand " is 
the way organization multiplies power, and it is 
a necessity for the development of the Christian 
life. 

Shall the church be a workshop with every 
member at the bench on full time or shall it be a 
hospital with the good pastor, who will not have 
societies and associations to use the talents of his 
people, always busy healing their bruises from 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, j jg 

childish quarrels among them? There is no 
menace in general society more threatening than 
armies of the unemployed and it is after all a 
choice between having a varied workshop for a 
church or having it a hospital. 

The plea for organization is fundamental to 
further progress. Without it the work has 
stopped. The old simplicity no longer attracts 
even in the country. The day of the specialist 
and the expert has come in all work, and surely 
spiritual work ought to be done as well as shoe- 
making, or surgery, or the law. The first chap- 
ter of Ezekiel seems a wonderful picture of 
spiritual organization. There are faces, the in- 
telligence of a man, the courage of a lion, the 
perseverance of the ox, the aspiration of the 
eagle; there are wheels within wheels, fire in it 
all ; infolding itself ever farther within ; wings 
upon wings for speed, rims of eyes to see every 
opportunity, hands to grasp them, and a circum- 
ference of the work " high and dreadful." In it 
all the spirit moving this organization of wheels 
and wings, hands and eyes, with the throne of 
one like a man above it, the diversity coming 
into unity of purpose and power. 

2. Another practical principle for all Chris- 
tian work has persistently been overlooked, and 
without it beginnings have met difficulties insur- 
mountable. No question is more frequently 
asked, when the organized church is described, 
how can I begin just where my church is, so 



H4 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



far away from such a condition? The Lord's 
oft-repeated principle is to accept only willing 
workers. The pastor or church leader who has 
tried it in a practical way has made, as the writer 
did to himself, a really wonderful discovery. 

God calls to his service only those who come 
gladly and willingly. The concrete instance of 
Gideon's band is typical. The fearful and home 
loving were not wanted. Only those glad to 
remain and who were willing to fight. What- 
ever the service or the offering this must be the 
spirit or it is rejected. 

" Serve the Lord with gladness." Psalm ioo : 

2. 

Praise him with the whole heart. Psalm 9: 1. 

Whosoever is of a willing heart bring an offer- 
ing. Exodus 35 : 5. 

" With a perfect heart and with a willing 
mind." 1 Chron. 28 : 9. 

" God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Cor. 9 : 7. 

" Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to 
suffer." Acts 5:41. 

" If there be first a willing mind, it is ac- 
cepted." 2 Cor. 8 : 12. 

In Deut. 28: 47, a great curse was upon the 
people because they served not the Lord with 
joyfulness. 

In Psalm 51:12 (Revision) is a prayer that 
God will "uphold me with a willing spirit." 
And so on. 

We see clearly that the only worker the Lord 



CHRIS TIAN PRINCIPLES MUS T BE SPREA Z>. 1 1 5 

wanted or called was the wholly willing one. 
We believe, we have no right in his name to ac- 
cept any others for his work to-day. We for- 
feit his richest blessing when we constrain those 
who profess to be his people by one motive or 
another to engage in his work. There are peo- 
ple, however, who shrink because of undue 
humility or underestimate of themselves, but 
who are truly consecrated and really willing and 
these we may urge to enter the work in full 
harmony with the principle of only willing serv- 
ice for God. But to gather into the Lord's house 
a company of his people who come grumblingly 
and unwillingly, who complain of being expected 
to give overmuch of their time or money to 
God's cause, is to foredoom the series of meet- 
ings involved or the particular religious enter- 
prise for which they are summoned to failure. 
Is it not in God's sight a blasphemous insult? 
How can we expect his blessing? 

We may, indeed, be as much dismayed by such 
a principle of working as Gideon was. But it is 
the Lord's law from first to last and it always 
succeeds. There is in every church a number, 
sometimes small but a sufficient nucleus, who are 
willing workers. If there are really none at all 
that church might as well disband. But a fair 
test in every case after earnest presentation of 
this principle as Scriptural and the only way to 
receive God's blessing always surprises the pastor 
or leader. The Lord has a large number yet in 



Ii6 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

his church in all the world who take joy in his 
work. Let us call them out with confidence. 

In the most practical view this is the only right 
way of beginning better work. The band of will- 
ing workers, however small, is a germ of 
power. Their personal leadership is inspiring, 
undismayed by difficulties and obstacles; they 
develop a real enthusiasm which becomes con- 
tagious, and their personal influence becomes 
powerful. They are a united force and ten all 
pulling enthusiastically one way are better than a 
hundred with forty-five pulling back. The rich 
blessing of God is at once fully upon them as 
they work. It has been found that a whole 
church of several hundred members has been 
permeated by a new spirit in a year from only 
eight members who were willing workers. A 
large number of Sunday-school teachers have 
been inspired in a year to seek normal prepara- 
tion and spiritual power by a half dozen of their 
fellow teachers who gladly began such prepara- 
tion and could not be discouraged. The joy in 
the Lord is ever the strength of any work for 
him. Great revivals have swept over churches 
started by a little group of glad and willing 
workers with prayer and personal appeal. 
Whether for spiritual or other work in the 
church, or for movements outside, the principle 
of willing workers is the way to succeed. Ten 
times their number of drafted soldiers grum- 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUS T BE SPREAD. i 1 7 

bling and half-hearted, will not accomplish half as 
much in a year as they. 

3. The Lord's work must be done always 
with unlimited self-sacrifice. He who shed his 
blood for us must have for his service men who 
are willing to die for him. His many calls to 
service all contain this sacrifice clause.* There 
is no other way to power, and strange paradox 
as it is, no other way to highest joy in it. And 
by another strange paradox of human nature, 
real and heroic sacrifice is incomparably attrac- 
tive to men. We see it in American citizenship. 
Small self-denials for it are resented as when 
citizens are asked to join civic clubs to study 
grave problems and pay annual dues, and they 
have no time for these things, but let there come 
a national peril and these same people to the 
number of hundreds of thousands promptly en- 
listed for service in the Civil War and in the 
Spanish War, risking lives, business and all. 

The appeal to the heroic moves even bad men 
to remarkable sacrifices. It is the most practical 
to make to Christians in any condition or circum- 
stances. We wrong God's people when we do 
not call them to suffer for Christ's cause. The 
most forlorn hope of a church under an inspir- 
ing leadership to heroism has been saved and 
made a success. It is the splendid Christian prin- 
ciple of sure success. 

* Matt. 10:9, 21, 38; 16:24, 25; 24:9; Mark 1 : 18; 6;8j 
8:35; Luke 9 : 23. 



n8 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Goethe says — 

"Everything cries out to us*that we must renounce ! 
Thou must go without, go without! 
This is the song every hour sings to us hoarsely 
Die and come to life ! " 

From the altar of heroic self-sacrifice comes 
the hot coal that kindles unquenchable enthu- 
siasm for all Christian work. Without that kind 
of enthusiasm there are long, dreary struggles, 
but with it an early and ever larger success. 
There are too many people trying to live a Chris- 
tian life without the cross, but whatever it is 
Christ has settled the matter that it is not the 
Christian life. Not a cross once in a life-time 
but the daily cross is the way to conquering 
power. 

4. Another principle lies at the foundation of 
Christian work. It is that God will call the lead- 
ers and workers if we pray him to do it. This 
is Christ's express direction to those seeking 
helpers. The call and anointing of the Lord was 
the secret of power of prophets in the Old Testa- 
ment and of apostles in the New. The Lord 
sends men no less really to-day. We gaze upon 
the white fields of wondrous opportunity until we 
are driven to our knees. Then God still exer- 
cises his unsurrendered prerogative to choose 
those whom he desires to fill places of great 
power and opportunity. And there is a courage 
and confidence born of the inner consciousness 
of the call of God that the worker must have for 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, ng 

victory. Jesus spent an entire night in prayer be- 
fore he chose the twelve and the Primitive Church 
waited for the Spirit to call men to the work. 
The discouraged church above all needs to see 
how practical is this prayer, and have many ex- 
periences, as it will have, of remarkable answers 
to it. 

The work of the church in her own proper 
organization in country places to bring on the 
Kingdom of Christ will be our larger study in 
the last section of the book. Its relation to all 
outside movements is ever close, but these out- 
side activities which Christ represents as the 
lighting of the world, and the spread of the great 
protecting tree require large development next in 
order. Christian civilization of to-day is also to 
be claimed for Christ. All good character which 
follows his teaching and is inspired by his ideals 
is to be credited to him. Sometimes the civiliza- 
tion he has created and the character he has in- 
spired fail to recognize him but he works on 
leading to still nobler achievments. 

What are the means he employs and the chan- 
nels through which his truth may operate out- 
side? 

5. It will be by the development of ideals and 
standards of nobler life. The practical value 
of ideals is becoming generally recognized. 
Herbert Spencer philosophizes that " any pro- 
posed system of morals which recognizes existing 
defects, and countenances acts made needful by 



120 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

them, stands self-condemned. Moral law re- 
quires as its postulate that human beings be per- 
fect." This seems an echo of Christ's words, 
" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." 

Indeed, a lofty ideal is the most practical of 
impulses to progress. No man accomplishes 
much who is not always inspired by ideals, but 
no man attains an ideal at a single bound. The 
ideal guides every step forward, it arouses en- 
thusiasm for noble endeavor and for martyr- 
like sacrifice. Men are no longer afraid of ideals 
nor discouraged by them. The demand for per- 
fecting things has become as insistent as that 
of progress. 

The ideals of civilization are only other forms 
of the teachings of Jesus. He is the Light which 
is now shining to the ends of the earth. But the 
sublime truths of Christ require centuries to 
mature in the world's consciousness. The value 
of individuality took fifteen hundred years, the 
brotherhood of man eighteen hundred, and the 
rights of the child and of woman will take two 
thousand years. So the nobler conceptions of the 
nature of man, of society, of law, of liberty, of 
property, of purity, of the family, and of other 
fundamental principles now in development in 
Christian civilization. 

What then are the outside movements which 
the light of Christ's teaching has begun and how 
shall they be started and made triumphant in 
rural districts? 



CHAPTER X. 

CIVIC CHRISTIANITY IN RURAL DISTRICTS. 

In many small villages and in the open country 
there is a loose and wholly inadequate civic gov- 
ernment. The local " constable " is supposed to 
do police duty, but his office is in small repute and 
only men of inferior character usually occupy it. 
The local magistrate or " justice of the peace " 
is a better officer at times but he generally takes 
no initiative in law enforcement. There is conse- 
quently a condition of practically " no govern- 
ment " in many rural sections. Drunkenness, 
where the saloon still exists is gross, and license 
laws, loose enough always, are persistently vio- 
lated. Occasionally a public-spirited citizen, 
usually a pastor, brings the liquor violator to 
grief by a legal prosecution, but this is soon for- 
gotten, and lawlessness is resumed and un- 
checked. 

A small group of roughs sometimes terrorizes 
a country region. They are coarse and insulting 
to women. They play rough pranks subjecting 

121 



122 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

neighbors to expense and injury, and they 
blaspheme God's name shockingly. They are 
disorderly in the village church when the fancy 
strikes them to attend. They make the town 
hideous by drunken rowdyism and far into the 
night parade its streets with howls and oaths. 
In a few cases thieving is carried on for a long 
time, and in one rural county while this is writ- 
ing, a gang of murderers led by a tavern keeper 
perpetrated many robberies and murder and 
though suspected the farmer folk feared to in- 
form on any of them. 

Then there are nuisances to the public health 
unchecked making typhoid fever and other dis- 
eases prevalent, bad roads unrepaired, though 
road taxes are regularly collected, and a general 
condition of anarchy exists. 

These evils of no government and the mani- 
fest possibilities of a good local government, call 
Christian citizens everywhere to establish the 
best developed possible in every village and 
farming community. Every church and its 
people should be persistently agitating for it. 

In some states like Ohio there is a city form 
of government permitted in any community how- 
ever small that desires it. Places of three to five 
hundred people have a mayor, clerk, treasurer, 
six councilmen, a marshal, a street commis- 
sioner, a health officer, and a board of education 
of five members. Others may be appointed by 
the council. The fees and salaries are nominal 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, j 23 

and entail small expense for the security afforded 
and the local development resulting.* 

In other states there is a " borough " form of 
civic charter for places under ten thousand 
which may be made equally efficient. In New 
England the farming regions are divided into 
" towns " or townships and a strong local gov- 
ernment is formed by commissions on health, 
education, streets and so on. But in many states 
only the justice of the peace and the constable 
exist in rural districts, a condition of practically 
no government, no development; lawlessness and 
crime. In the town there should as early in its 
development as possible be secured a city or bor- 
ough charter. In the suburb nothing is more 
important, for the suburb has more tempting 
houses and property for thieves, and police pro- 
tection is vital to personal safety. And the 
growth of town pride for improvements will be 
rapid and gratifying. 

In the open country the best possible imme- 
diate civic organization should be perfected. 
The best officers carefully selected and then a 
local police official appointed. It need not be 
expensive, for the officers may be honorary, re« 
ceiving small fees for any service rendered, as 
is now the law for constables and magistrates. 
The objection to borough or city charters from 

* Read Martin's " New Civic Government "—Am. Book 
Co., and Albert Bushnell Hart's "Actual Government as 
Applied under American Conditions." 



124 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 



higher taxes can be overcome by election of 
honest and capable officials, and there will be 
large returns for increase of taxation. 

There are considerations far beyond the finan- 
cial which argue for civic development.* The 
schools require it and that means the future of 
any place. The character of the child is power- 
fully influenced by town environment and civic 
conditions. A practical anarchy is fertile ground 
for personal lawlessness in children and young 
people. The country rowdy in the small town is 
a bad product of such conditions. 

The village needs to be kept in touch with civic 
and political movements of the state and the 
nation. Every political struggle, especially 
those for nobler ideals of government, ought to 
be brought to the village and town by good 
citizens. The neighborhood political meeting 
should be arranged for and the best speakers in 
the campaign engaged. There are few uplifts 
of the country village and farm comparable to 
such tours as the Lincoln-Douglass debate, great 
Prohibition or Suffrage issues, labor and capital 
discussions and the deeper questions of Christian 
Socialism. Never were there issues with so clear 
ethical notes as now. Let the village ring with 
these political discussions. 

Develop the patriotism of the children by well 
planned observance of national days, the birth- 

* See Batten's " New Citizenship "—Carlos Martin's 
" Christian Citizenship." 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 125 

days of Lincoln and Washington, Memorial Day, 
the Fourth of July, by making them great oc- 
casions of a musical, spectacular and intellectual 
character. The public schools should be sure to 
celebrate the days not suitable for a village 
festival. Elevate all celebrations to some re- 
ligious character along with most enjoyable 
festivities. 

Use the flag, our beautiful stars and stripes, 
always. It should float over every schoolhouse 
and be a part of the furnishing of every church. 
Teach young and old to salute it reverently 
wherever seen. 

The local newspaper may be quickened into 
real helpfulness, and prosperity for itself, if used 
for civic development. Let the editor invite dis- 
cussion of local needs and conditions. Let his 
paper stand for lofty ideals of public order, im- 
provement, and morals. He may well point out 
that there is financial return in bettering condi- 
tions and in local pride; it attracts desirable 
citizens, enhances values, and promotes general 
prosperity. 

The church has its mission in all this civic re- 
vival but not so much as an organization, as by 
teaching higher standards and by influencing 
her members to participate in improvements. 
The pastor can do his effective work through the 
citizens he stirs to activity and by intelligent 
counsel. 



l 2 6 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Some specific things should be effected in all 
towns and villages. 

i. The saloon must be driven out. If a state 
local option law gives opportunity that is usually 
the readiest weapon. In the campaign the 
churches lead, and now that organized Adult 
Bible classes are sweeping men by tens of 
thousands into the Sunday-school these classes 
have led to victory in many places. So the town 
of Ashland, Ohio, was cleared of saloons, so 
Hagerstown, Md., stirred a wonderful enthu- 
siasm against the saloon which though defeated 
in the first struggle will surely win, and these are 
few of many. 

Nevada, Ohio, a village of about one thousand 
people shows what conditions before and after 
the saloons are. The statement is made by Mr. 
H. E. Kinsley, ex-mayor. His own personal 
transactions in property follow: — 

During saloons. After saloons. 

Bought property for $300 Improved $200 Sold for $900 

" 314 " 700 " "$1800 

" " " 250 Removed buildings " lot 1200 

" dwelling " 300 No improvements " " 500 

and many more of the same kind. 

More new sidewalks have been constructed 
since saloons were abolished than for twenty 
years with saloons. Almost all old " shacks " 
harboring undesirable citizens have been removed 
and good houses built. Few houses to rent while 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. i 2 j 

at one time thirty-five were vacant with saloons 
open. The rooms occupied by saloons are now 
taken by legitimate business. He then specifies 
a surprising list of new business blocks erected 
since saloons were closed and two new churches 
costing respectively $13,000 and $18,000. Gro- 
cery business never so prosperous in spite of 
changed conditions. Decrease in bad debts 
seventy-five per cent. A single day's sale under 
saloons, the highest was $193, without saloons it 
reached $367. Tax levy with saloons four and a 
half mills, without saloons the same but the bal- 
ance in bank for the little city increased from 
$49 to $716. No increase of taxes required after 
saloons were abolished and less expense. 

This is a sample of the prosperity that awaits 
the departure of saloons. A number of personal 
investigations by the writer in towns with saloons 
and others without them in several states showed 
him the astonishing improvement in industrial, 
moral and social conditions in the latter. Where 
there is no local option it is possible sometimes 
to keep out the saloon by energetic resistance to 
granting of licenses. There is no better form of 
temperance agitation than such a campaign and 
every earnest Christian engaged in it will prob- 
ably have the reward of saving his boys from the 
perils of strong drink. 

2. The curfew law which requires all the 
children to be in their homes by nine o'clock 
should be extended to all towns and villages and 



I 2 8 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

with a good local government strictly enforced. 
The little towns are crowded with children on 
the street late at night, and learning all sorts of 
evil. 

3. Laws against swearing in public places 
exist in some states and may be wisely invoked 
as the writer led in doing, in a town where this 
demoralizing evil had become intolerable. 

4. The petty gambling in cigar stores and 
other places by slot machines, dice, and other 
forms should be promptly and completely sup- 
pressed. It is specially harmful to boys. 

5. Obscene posters and post cards or other 
pictures must be rigorously excluded. 

6. Sunday laws should be reasonably but firmly 
enforced by Christian citizens. 

7. A local Law and Order Association is an 
excellent support to local officials who desire to 
enforce laws, but in a town where they very fre- 
quently find no apparent public opinion in favor 
of the enforcement. Law breakers are persistent 
in bringing all kinds of personal and business 
pressure against the enforcement of good laws. 
By the association also the careless or corrupt 
official is forced to do his duty. An immediate 
expression of righteous public sentiment is made 
possible. 

8. A policeman should always be in evidence 
in the streets. Wild and giddy girls and foul- 
mouthed men are public nuisances, making the 
town notorious, and the night a fearful school 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 129 

of vice. The quiet policeman in uniform breaks 
it up. He is worth a thousand times his modest 
salary. 

Great general reforms are powerful edu- 
cators in civic Christianity. The anti-slavery 
crusade incidentally brought a splendid political 
development to America. It penetrated into 
hamlet, village, and farm-house and produced a 
noble patriotism. Its organization ought to have 
remained to effect other reforms. So may the 
equally notable Prohibition movement be a bless- 
ing to permanent local government. Especially 
to rural districts, for there the temperance wave 
is highest and its victories most glorious. Will 
not good citizens maintain the reform organiza- 
tion for the great battles to come for the Ameri- 
can Sunday laws, for the Bible in public schools 
and for the other features of our Christian 
government? 

Rural American citizenship will largely decide 
our future issues. Three-fourths of the people 
live in towns, and on farms, and the proportion 
will not be likely now to decrease. Vast changes 
are on the horizon and it is essential that Chris- 
tian ethics shall rule political ideals of the future. 
Ultimate America will be worked out in the 
town and village in a large measure. 

The ancient theocracy, making God the real 
king, must be the Christian citizen's inspiration. 
His* law of righteousness is the only law of con- 
tinuous progress, and that alone will exalt to 



13° 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



power.* There is no union of state or church in 
the national acknowledgment of God which 
lowers the United States flags on vessels during 
worship, and runs up the standard of the cross; 
in the Supreme Court decision that this is a 
Christian nation; in the chaplains of our legis- 
latures, army and navy; in proclamations for 
Thanksgiving Day, and in other Christian fea- 
tures of our national life. We may well go 
further without danger of establishing any 
church. The larger recognition of divine law 
may not solve all national ills but it educates 
citizenship to nobler aspirations, promotes law 
abiding, and we believe brings richer blessings 
from the King of all kings. 

* Read— Dr. W. F. Crafts' " Practical Christian Sociology," 
" The Sabbath for Man,"— Josiah Strong's " Our Country," 
" The New Era,"— R. T. Ely's " " Social Law of Service "— 
Washington Gladden's " Applied Christianity."— Prof. Waffle, 
" The Lord's Day." 



CHAPTER XI. 

CHRISTLIKE WORK-DAY RELATIONS. 

The " hands " on the farm used to be a great 
company. The march and music of the swinging 
scythes, periodically sweetened by the ring of the 
sharpening stone, was a picturesque sight and 
experience. The resounding flip-flap of the 
flails on the barn floor, the fun of the husking 
party, the barn raising, the threshing days, and 
then the apple-butter making, and the sugar 
boiling, and the butchering days and nights, who 
can ever forget them? Large numbers of people 
were employed, the farmer and his " hands " ate 
together in the large kitchen, and were in close 
social relations. This happily lingers in many 
sections but the machine has come to stay on the 
farm, also, and helpers go to other occupations. 

It was feared the machine would leave an 
army of unemployed. But the fewer now needed 
are harder to secure than the large number of 
former times. In Arkansas and elsewhere dur- 
ing cotton picking, the farmer drives into town 
131 



132 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



in the morning and loads up his people after 
offering large pay, and brings them back at 
night. So in all sections and for all kinds of 
farm work it is difficult to get help. The labor 
problem is becoming a farm problem. Immi- 
grant labor is sought for and must soon be used 
in large numbers for the American is doing 
something else in cities and towns. This will 
introduce strange tongues, alien customs, and 
break the former close social relations on the 
farm and in the village. But even here the farm 
will reach the earliest solution. 

Few people have any conception of the magni- 
tude of the American farmer's business. Let 
us try to see it with somewhat larger vision.* 

*FARM PRODUCTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 
1907. 
World Almanac, igog. 

Value 

Animals, number 204,101,922 $4,423,897,853 

Bees, swarms 4,109,426 10,186,513 

Butter, pounds 531,478,141 113,188,453 

Cheese, " 301,844,172 28,6n,'732 

Cotton, " 5,392,944,000 551,506,696 

Hay, tons 66,677,000 743,507,000 

Milk, gallons 7,256,804,304 

Orchard, bushels 212,365,000 83,753,000 

Potatoes, Irish, bushels .... 207,942,000 183,889,000 

" Sweet, " .... 42,517,414 19,860,919 
Sugar, pounds, ) 

all kinds, ) 1,500,000,000 51,000,000 

Vegetables 113,644,398 

Wool, pounds 298,915,130 129,410,000 

Wheat, bushels 634,087,000 554,437,000 

Corn, " 2,592,320,000 1,336,901,000 

Oats, " 754,443,000 334,568,000 

Poultry, number 250,623,414 

Eggs, dozen 1,293,662,433 

See for comparison Census Bulletin 237, pages 12, 13, 
giving production for 1899. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. I33 

We use round figures to be more graphic. Of 
the nearly 30,000,000 of people employed in all 
occupations in the United States, more than 
10,000,000 are working on farms, and adding the 
mechanics, laborers, and professional men and 
business men in villages and towns we are con- 
cerned in our rural labor problem with five 
millions more, or fully one-half of all people in 
every occupation in America. 

The labor and capital issues are acute in the 
large cities, but one-half of all the working- 
people are in ones or twos on farms, or in town 
mechanical pursuits. Here in the closer indi- 
vidual contact, and warmer personal relations, 
the employer and employee are not separated and 
antagonistic, and the country as it comes into 
more intimate relations with the city by modern 
inter-communication will probably have large 
part in restoring Christian relations in the 
industrial world.* 

There are 5,739,657 farms in the United States, 
of which 3,700,000 are farmed by their owners, 
so that less than two laborers on an average are 
regularly employed on each farm. The employer 
and one helper work side by side, the employer 
toiling as hard as his helper, and the two on 
thoroughly fraternal terms. The tenant farmer 
also usually employs one hand, often in both 

* See Roads's " Christ Enthroned in the Industrial World." 



I 3 4 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

cases on part time or by the day, but the relations 
are close and friendly. 

The value of these nearly six million farms is 
twenty and a half billions of dollars, the annual 
products being in 1899 $4,739,118,752 and in 
1907 estimated at seven billions and nearly five 
hundred millions.* This is one-half of the total 
value of all manufactures in the United States. 
The dairy business alone yields half a billictn dol- 
lars a year; animals on the farm are worth five 
billions and the cereal products annually over two 
billions, or two thousand millions of dollars. 
Twenty per cent, of the wheat of the whole world 
is raised in the United States, seventy per cent. 
of the corn, and fully seventy per cent, of the 
cotton of the world. 

Think of this army of ten millions of workers 
on our farms not massed by hundreds or thou- 
sands in a few places, or unknown to each other 
and perhaps designated by numbered tags, but on 
nearly six million farms by twos or threes on 
each place, happy, prosperous, well-fed, and away 
from the distractions, excesses, and many temp- 
tations of crowded cities. Is it not on these 
farms where labor problems may be mightily in- 
fluenced toward a right solution? Even if the 
foreign laborer comes to the farm there are yet 
the very small number that makes social rela- 
tions easier. May it not be that rural sections 
shall have the controlling voice in settling in- 
* Census Bulletin 237, pp. 4, 5, and World Almanac, 1909. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 135 

dustrial difficulties? For the solution must come 
with brotherly love from both sides, and the first 
step necessary will be individual development of 
the work-people. This is exceedingly difficult 
with thousands herded in one place as in the 
large city factories or in mines, but how much 
easier with two or three on a farm. 

The foreign laborer is new on the farm but 
he has long been a problem in mining villages, 
factory towns, and others. In many places the 
foreign laborer has brought a social deluge. He 
has completely changed the customs, business, 
and even the language of New England farms. 
French is spoken on the streets and religious 
processions with noisy bands break the quiet of 
the old time Sabbath and wake new echoes for 
the Puritan descendants, who declare, " We can't 
get used to it." 

But there, and in Pennsylvania coal and coke 
regions, already earnest young Christians are 
studying the languages of these people and going 
among them to win them to Christ. The immi- 
gration peril is passing into a wonderful oppor- 
tunity in Christ's kingdom under this new spirit. 
And nothing will advance the labor and capital 
problems more surely to their Christlike solution. 
The gospel for the social life goes with indi- 
vidual salvation. 

One individual farmer cannot solve the labor 
problem very well even for himself. The church 
can only assist by teaching the brotherhood of 



136 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

man under the divine fatherhood and by ethical 
teaching on industrial rights and duties. " No 
rights without duties, no duties without rights " 
is a good platform for others than Socialists, who 
first announced it. It would seem, therefore, that 
Christian farmers employing laborers should 
come to a mutual understanding. They should 
quietly get together and in the Christlike spirit 
decide upon the largest wages they can afford 
and the special housing of their work-people. 
The tenant house on the farm ought to be re- 
paired and made thoroughly comfortable and 
attractive, for this is a good business proposition. 
The farmer's family may show many little kind- 
nesses to these people and to their families. Large 
factories and business places in cities have come 
to a remarkable development of " Welfare work." 
The comfort of the man, his health, his intellec- 
tual enrichment, and moral quickening are pro- 
vided for by great dining-rooms, libraries, rest 
rooms, entertainments, and other kindly atten- 
tions. Some of these establishments have a 
trained expert in such work in charge. Of 
course it pays in financial returns to these Chris- 
tian manufacturers but there is no reason to be- 
lieve that this is the motive for it, as in the case 
of the American Cash Register Company, the 
Heinz Company, and the Stetson Company, 
three very notable instances of large welfare 
work in beautiful spirit* 

* Wyckoff, "The Workers— The West." 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, jtf 

The spirit of this kindliness may be on the 
little farm. It will improve the work and in- 
crease profits. The workman will make the in- 
terests of the farm his own to the great comfort 
and satisfaction of the farmer who employs him. 

The higher intelligence of the laborer is a 
paying asset. Whatever arouses a real interest 
in farm conditions, methods of cultivation, care 
of stock, and the latest economies on the farm is 
immensely valuable. The man may well be en- 
couraged to read farm journals, magazines, and 
books after the proprietor has read them. The 
pictorial magazines and interesting books will be 
enjoyed by his family. Self-interest, if it were 
not always stupidly blind, would dictate the 
largest intellectual broadening and enriching of 
the living machine upon which profits so largely 
depend, just as machines of iron are sheltered, 
repainted, and oiled by the thrifty farmer. Com- 
fortable living with those who labor for him, less 
need of supervision of their work, lessening of 
worry about the work, and the creation of an 
atmosphere of good will and good cheer will re- 
sult from all this brotherly interest. 

His moral character gives results in even more 
profitable ways. The shrewd farmer, who cares 
for none of these kindly ways, may imagine that 
he can watch the workmen, that they will have 
little opportunity on the farm to be dishonest or 
idle, and that he will be more comfortable in 
keeping such people at a distance. That all wel- 



138 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

fare work is a beautiful sentiment but not " busi- 
ness." But he will learn that his workmen soon 
know the game of watch and can play it also. 
He may discharge them in rapid succession and 
instruct others if he likes that sort of a thing, 
for as Lincoln used to say, " For those that like 
that sort of a thing that is the kind of a thing 
they like." But the lines on his face will deepen 
and the burdens grow heavier. The way of the 
transgressor of brotherliness is becoming in- 
creasingly hard. The burden of love is very 
light and the yoke of mutual help is easy. The 
crop of character in his own children and in 
work-people on the farm is the richest and most 
enjoyable he will ever produce. 

If the pursuit of happiness is one of the in- 
alienable rights the Declaration of Independence 
secured for us it might be well to pursue happi- 
ness in a really sensible way. 

Keeping the Sabbath as free as possible from 
work is more than a Christian duty. It is wise 
and profitable economics. There are many illus- 
trations of the fact that a man will do more work 
in a year on six days a week and religiously rest- 
ing the seventh than on a steady seven days a 
week. Animals will do the same. 

Two families in the early days started from 
New York state to Tennessee by the covered 
wagon and four horses each, the horses about the 
same kind in every way. The one rested every 
Sabbath, the other pushed on anxious to reach 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 139 

his farm for early planting. The Sabbath keeper 
reached there first, his horses in fine condition for 
immediate service on the new place. The other 
came on a few days afterward with horses too 
tired to do good work. The Christian farmer has 
reflected upon all phases of his work which is 
necessary and merciful on the Sabbath and he 
avoids all the rest.* 

In the suburb the servant girl question is a 
burning one. Who can throw light upon that? 
It seems to many impertinent to suggest closer 
relations, though one would think it important to 
get at least sympathetic touch with the woman 
who prepares the food for the mistress and her 
cultured family, that it may always be sanitary 
if not appetizing and spotlessly clean. The lofty 
disdain of people upon whom one depends is 
ridiculous. Close intellectual fellowship and 
social intercourse is not possible, shall we say? 
But Henry Ward Beecher tells how he found 
some of his richest illustrations in conversation 
with workmen and servants. They often know 
one thing exceedingly well, and Beecher was 
after that special knowledge. Then when he 
touched that subject it was with most illuminat- 
ing detail that made his preaching such a delight. 
Such kindly intellectual relation is often a rich 
receiving. 

Genuine appreciation of good work by ser- 
vants secures better and better work. Do not 
* Dr. W. F. Crafts' " The Sabbath for Man." 



140 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



mistresses and masters want this better work? 
It is beautiful to see still so many noble men and 
women who know how to be Christian masters 
and ladies, and who have gathered about them 
in life-long service a company of capable, honest, 
and faithful workers for all the comforts of those 
happy homes. These men and women have 
blessed all who are employed in their homes but 
they have shared with them in richer blessings. 
And he who was himself the Carpenter has 
abundantly blessed them all. 

In all daily work the loftiest religious motives 
may be present. As Phillips Brooks says, " Our 
daily work, the constant occupation of our life, 
needs to be done in God's presence and to be 
shone through and through by him. It is a chan- 
nel of utterance for the divine life in the soul." 
And in attitude toward all we do let us heed the 
word of George Washington, " Labor to keep 
alive in your breast that little spark of celestial 
fire called conscience." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE COUNTRY STORE IN THE KING'S BUSINESS. 

Among the unquestionably real stages of prog- 
ress in Christianizing the world is the moral 
improvement in retail business. There are men 
in middle life who remember the methods of a 
generation ago in the country store, and, for that 
matter, in all city stores. No price mark was on 
any goods but the proprietor's secret letters or 
cabalistic signs. The writer as a boy salesman in 
a country store for three years used to find much 
amusement in constructing price marks from 
sentences selected as the secret. A sentence or 
phrase which contains ten letters, none of them 
repeated, was required. For some time our cost 
mark was based on, " Come and buy." Each 
letter in order stood for one of the ten figures of 
Arabic numerals, and thus it was easy to mark 
the cost with letters that only the merchant or 
salesman could understand. 

Usually only the cost price was marked and 
the asking price came to be understood from the 
cost. Thus a basis for a sale was laid and the 
141 



142 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



prospective buyer began his " jewing down." 
He promptly objected to the price asked for the 
article, and the salesman after declaring it was a 
fair price and could not be low r ered, did after 
some chaffing lower it cautiously. Then another 
attack, a vigorous defense, and a little lower, still 
leaving good room for profits. So the sharp in- 
tellectual fencing continued, and after many 
more words in the contest, the price was finally 
accepted, the goods bought, and possibly charged 
to be paid when crops came in. The buyer went 
home chuckling to himself that he had made a 
fine bargain, compelling a great reduction in 
price, while the salesman laughed at the buyer's 
simplicity and knew that after all he received 
more than he expected. 

In those days prices were made for each indi- 
vidual buyer. The merchant and his " clerks " 
knew the character of every man and woman in 
such dealings and they knew exactly where to 
put the asking figure to get out safely in the long 
struggle. No two people probably were asked 
the same price except for a few staple articles 
on which there was no haggling. The contests 
were not unen joy able but they were exceedingly 
demoralizing. One merchant, for instance, had 
a suit of ready-made clothing to sell. A fair 
price was asked, fifteen dollars, and being a man 
tired of the old way and seeking to establish a 
one-price system, he told his customer solemnly 
on his word that fifteen dollars was the lowest 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 143 

possible price. The customer, a sharp-tongued 
and snappy man, laughed immoderately and said, 
" Oh, yes ! you storekeepers are great cheats any- 
way, and take all you can get." The merchant 
laid the suit away and then brought one after 
another of different prices rapidly until he had 
completely confused the man. He knew that the 
first suit had caught the man's fancy, and after 
chaffing and arguing, crimination and recrimina- 
tion, had gone on for a long time, he said as if 
suddenly recollecting, " O, I have a splendid suit 
I want you to see. But it is twenty-five dollars 
and not a cent less ! I am sure you will like it." 
He pretended to look for it in several places and 
at last brought back the suit he had sincerely 
offered for fifteen dollars, but now being on his 
mettle, he loudly demanded twenty-five for it! 

Then commenced another tussle, and little by 
little, the merchant came down to twenty-two 
dollars at which he sold it. It was an interesting 
fight to both and both were delighted with the 
outcome, but the merchant said to me afterward, 
" Wasn't he legitimate prey ? " The contest was 
always unequal, if only the foolish buyer had 
allowed himself to know it. The merchant was 
more or less an expert, the real cost was known 
only to him, the kind of a dogged fight the par- 
ticular customer would make he knew, and his 
simple expedient was to begin at a high enough 
price to win in the end. In any case he could 
finally refuse to sell. 



144 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



Then weights and lengths were always short. 
A piece of dress goods might be marked ten 
yards but if it measured nine and a half yards 
it was readily acquiesced in, or a bolt of ribbon 
would be marked ten yards and be nearly a yard 
short. For short weight of packed coffees, teas, 
or other articles, the ready excuse was they dried 
out in the store, but of course they had never 
been acknowledged damp. This dishonesty was 
general and nothing better was expected. 

There was no exchange of goods thought of in 
these stores. Grudgingly when it could not be 
refused, the merchant allowed a discount on the 
charge. For the customer had a ready weapon 
in his long-standing account. But gradually the 
exchange came to be demanded and conceded, at 
first only when another article was purchased. 
Some of these dishonesties are still practiced. 

Adulteration of goods is still a very great evil. 
Not always the fault of the merchant solely, for 
buyers are willing to be humbugged if it is not 
exposed. For instance a buyer would come in 
for Java coffee and would be told, honestly, that 
it cannot be had for that price. He would retort 
that so-and-so sells it at that price. Then the 
merchant said, " It cannot be genuine Java ! " 
But he was told it was very conceited to claim 
superior honesty to anyone else, so he usually 
ended by selling the next man " Java " at any 
price he wanted it. One " Christian " merchant 
taught his new clerk to sell in this fraudulent 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, t 



45 



way, and the boy learned it well, but he tried also 
to steal from the shrewd merchant, and I found 
him in the penitentiary. It was all right to de- 
fraud the buyer but the good man drew the line 
at taking anything from himself. In the country 
store there are many who excuse themselves for 
such dealings, but let us be thankful that a new 
race of honest men have come into some of these 
stores and they are doing business in Christ's 
spirit. 

On the part of the buyer the long credits de- 
manded are a great hardship and frequently a 
wrong to the merchant. There are prosperous 
farmers who pay only once a year. The annual 
settling day over, they invest all but a small sur- 
plus in an interest-bearing way. Then their ac- 
counts begin and run without a payment until 
next settling day. Some of these men are 
thoughtless about the inconvenience they cause 
and do not realize they are drawing interest on 
other people's money. Workmen like carpenters, 
masons, and painters on farm buildings are com- 
pelled to wait for months before being paid, the 
money due to them drawing interest for the good 
farmer. 

This practice of long credits is one of the worst 
of country business evils. Artisans and laborers 
run up bills beyond their ability to pay and then 
shamelessly default. When the merchant com- 
plains, they go to another store. The writer was 
obliged in the store frequently to request some 



1 46 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

workman's wife to purchase more moderately, for 
we knew it would be impossible to pay in full, 
and at times was compelled to refuse everything 
except bare necessaries of life. Then she went 
elsewhere, and at four or five stores such people 
ran up great bills beyond their ability to pay for 
years to come. But the merchants were not 
blameless for they lacked the courage to unite 
against such practices as they now do, and they 
encouraged extravagant buying by these people. 
In some sections the story of these evils reads 
like ancient history but they are fearful and lively 
in other places yet. On the whole there is in- 
spiring moral progress in business. The four 
cardinal principles of honest selling, as one great 
Christian merchant * expressed them — 

" One fair price to all, plainly marked on the goods, — 

Goods freely exchanged for cash, — 

Full lengths and weights as indicated, — 

Goods truthfully described as to quality, merits, and defects," 

have won their way to general acceptance. They 
are indeed " the four-leaved clover " for both 
buyer and seller. It is an interesting story how 
that merchant had to fight step by step for these 
principles and how many years' fight it was 
before victory. For the buyer there is the plain 
duty of paying cash at the time of purchase, or 
its full equivalent in a short credit for con- 
venience only. Where these principles do not 

* John Wanamaker, in advertisements. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, j 47 

yet prevail, the duty of Christian men, buyers and 
merchants, is to seek earnestly to have them 
adopted. There are no obstacles in the way of 
the country church so distressing as the familiar 
examples of unscrupulous merchants who are yet 
members, or purchasers also members of the 
church who do not pay their debts. Everybody 
knows them as they sit prominently in the church, 
and the most powerful appeals to the unsaved 
strike these " hypocrites " as a dead buffer. 

Honest business must obtain also on the farm 
in dealing with the world. There is the dairy 
with its proverbial temptations to dishonesty, or 
equally reprehensible, its carelessness as to the 
perfect health of the cows, and absolute cleanli- 
ness in handling the milk. There are the horse 
deals, in which deacons and David Harums vie 
in lying ; there are the " fake " fresh cows ; the 
too-young veal ; and what not of other sharp 
practices of innocent looking farmers. " Busi- 
ness is business " no longer avails to excuse the 
ill-gotten gains, for now that is not good business 
and not long profitable, fortunately. 

The Christian farmer must fully bring the 
Kingdom of Christ into business dealings. He 
is called of God to serve the world's table and 
God is his overseer in his deepest moral con- 
sciousness. He refuses like Abraham Lincoln in 
the country store simply to act with " law 
honesty," the sort that goes to the extent of ques- 
tionable dealings short of crime. He will be 



I4 8 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

strictly true to the interests of his customer, and 
the farmer can more easily without great finan- 
cial loss be discriminately honest than the mer- 
chant in the fierce competition of great cities. 
But the Christian man does not fail to do right- 
eously because it costs money, or he may lose by 
it. The pure money argument is the thief's or 
the burglar's plea. 

So the Christian farmer fully recognizes his 
Divine call to do his service to humanity and he 
performs it as unto God. It is really only when 
men gtt the religious motive for business honesty 
and efficiency that they rise above temptation. It 
is a noble service to man to provide the best food 
for him, clean, wholesome and nourishing to his 
brain and body. It is the service Christ himself 
rendered the five thousand at one time, which the 
Heavenly Father bestows upon the countless 
millions of his children day by day, upon which 
he has expended marvelous wisdom and power, 
and which he teaches men to pray to him for 
daily. The new enthusiasm for farming arises 
from the higher conception of it rather than from 
its greater promise in money making. It is a 
vocation for the world's good, scientific, noble, of 
unlimited possibilities of improving its products, 
and with a splendid opportunity in it for a fine 
Christian manhood. To be honest in it in every 
way then becomes a matter of religion. The 
gospel of love to all men, the Christian principle 
of the brotherhood of the race, the personal re- 



CHRIS TIAN PRINCIPLES MUS TBE SPREAD, j 



49 



sponsibility of man to God, and the supreme duty 
in all life to grow a noble character, enter into 
his business, and he then becomes more than 
honest in all his dealings. He becomes efficient 
in his service to mankind in new and better ways. 
He improves his product perseveringly. He is 
alert to discover and to utilize every new method 
that will enhance his service to the world. He 
no longer separates his Sunday " service " which 
is simply worship, from his Monday business 
which is really service both to God and man. All 
his life becomes holy and all is done under the 
consciousness of God's guidance and approval. 

The country store is a great social and re- 
ligious opportunity. Its atmosphere may be 
clean and stimulating to good character. Its 
conversation may be upon scientific farming, 
latest news from all parts of the world, noble re- 
forms, and Christian progress. The proprietor 
and his neighbors may make it uplifting to the 
boy and the young man. It may be as yet the 
only social center of the village or farming dis- 
trict, but it may be helpful in every good work. 
It may be made a circulating library of best and 
latest books as some such stores have become. 
A small fee for each book taken out, or an annual 
membership meets all expenses and gives a small 
profit. A whole neighborhood may be blessed by 
these and other helpful enterprises centering in 
the country store when once it does business for 
the King. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHRISTIAN HOME LIFE IN THE COUNTRY. 

The rapidly spreading drift to country home 
life is evidence enough of its superior attrac- 
tiveness. The city for great business, the coun- 
try for sweetest of homes is universal conviction. 
For all that men want of a home the country 
home in the suburb stands. 

The Christian home of the future will be in 
the country. So w T e will seek in it the ideal 
comforts of the home. 

i. Perfect rest for tired brains and hearts, far 
enough away from scenes of business to make it 
easy to drop its cares. But rest of the kind that 
recuperates energies comes only with new inspi- 
rations, new thoughts, and feelings crowding out 
the details of exacting business or professional 
life. There must be something to take up in the 
country as well as business anxieties to lay down, 
else the anxieties will not down. Absolute 
vacuity of mind is not possible to a w r aking man 
so long intensely active. So there are some men 
150 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 5 1 

who go to the country with no interest in fields, 
or flowers, or landscape; no exhilarating pleas- 
ure in country scenes or employments, and no 
concern about the neighborhood in which wife 
and children spend all day and the children get 
their -environment for character. These men 
speedily find the city business rushing in as a 
flood over their hearts in spite of long distance 
away in their country homes. Refreshing relief 
comes from the substitution of the exhilarating 
new things of God's wonderful country and the 
inrush of thoughts and emotions it inspires. 
When the mountains and the fields and clouds 
stir them with some of Ruskin's awe and thrill- 
ing joy, when the violet or the strawberry come 
to mean somewhat of wonder they had for Fara- 
day, when they see God as Whittier and Words- 
worth do in nature, then will business cares be 
forgotten and the whole man be renewed in 
strength. 

2. Time for family fellowship and loving at- 
tentions is another object of the ideal home. 
Only the blessed leisure of rural life permits real 
communion of father, mother and children. In 
the cities the evenings are crowded as fearfully 
as the days. The exciting rounds of entertain- 
ments, dinners, receptions, debutantes, breakfasts 
at noon, socials ; of lectures, conventions, board 
meetings; of clubs, lodges, anniversaries; of 
euchre parties, private musicales, theatres and 
theatre parties, grand operas and dinners follow- 



152 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



ing; of base-ball, football by day and celebrations 
of them late into the night, extend to the small 
hours of the morning and make the night so ex- 
hausting to the women that they spend many 
mornings in bed and long afternoons in naps. 
Home in the modern city is to many the place for 
long sleeps and no real life. The toiling, busi- 
ness-burdened husbands get out of many social 
excesses, for the absence of men from these func- 
tions is almost as serious as their absence from 
church meetings, but they must attend all too 
many. The little children know next to nothing 
of their mothers but have plenty of nurses and 
governesses. How they and the fathers welcome 
the sweet home circle of the country ! There for 
once do they become fully acquainted with their 
own families. And blessed be the families who 
have always lived in the country. 

3. Moral and spiritual replenishing for the 
world's struggle ought to be in the home. All 
men, consciously or unconsciously, do come to 
the home for moral strengthening. Tired to ex- 
haustion with conflicts and fearful temptations, 
fighting bravely against wrong, sometimes yield- 
ing, they come home for help. To be sadly disap- 
pointed in many homes but Low blessedly they 
are helped in the sweet Christian family circle 
of the suburb, or far out in the country town! 
That is, if they have been wise enough to begin 
home life as Christians and to maintain religion 
there. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. ! 53 

The home life of country people who live 
wholly there, business and all, if it is truly Chris- 
tian, will surely play a large part in Christianiz- 
ing rural districts. The home is the first insti- 
tution God gave to man. It began in Eden, and 
for ages after that the home included in itself 
church, school, civic center, and home in one. 
The father was priest, civil ruler, teacher, espe- 
cially the religious head of the home. The 
church came later to help parents more fully to 
discharge their religious duties. The church, 
therefore, is the religious specialization of the 
home, and the home must ever be in the closest 
relation with the church because the church was 
organized to reinforce the home's religious life. 

The home is everywhere the unit of civiliza- 
tion. Individuals at best are incomplete and 
fractional. Only when in relation to each other 
as members of a family and fully adjusted to 
those relations are individuals fully developed. 
Individual growth of character early reaches the 
social in his human nature and then grows to- 
ward others, being completed in the relations of 
husband, father, brother, friend. Like the trees 
of the country orchard the full growth of each 
tree, twenty feet apart from others, brings the 
branches of all together in interlacing above and 
the roots of all together in interlocking below. 
This is Professor Drummond's fine thought in 
" Evolution of Man for Others." * 

* See "Ascent of Man." Drummond. 



154 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

It is then the opportunity of Christian homes 
in the country to realize their power in village, 
town, or farming district and to combine for the 
coming of Christ's Kingdom there. It is when 
these homes become centers and fountains of 
purity, Christian character, and richest happi- 
ness that they uplift the town. A few such homes 
create the new atmosphere and moral tonic. The 
joy and cheer of these homes become infectious, 
and in fearsome contrast will stand the empti- 
ness and curse of the selfish life. 

The head of that Christian home in his new joy 
and reinvigoration forcibly proves to his busi- 
ness associates that godliness is profitable in the 
present life. He makes all other hearts hungry 
fo*r the same kind of a home and for the religion 
which creates it. 

The mothers and daughters of that home in 
society.. are -an influence of immeasurable weight 
for nobler life. Christian life in the home counts 
for much more than it does confined to the 
church building. The sweet fruits of woman's 
Christian home life in beautiful character are 
wanted universally. 

The children, too, at school and at play are 
unconscious missionaries advocating such homes 
to all. Their joy is the strength of their concrete 
plea for God in the home. Surely it is by simply 
having a truly godly home that the whole com- 
munity will be influenced. And such homes will 
exercise a large hospitality, a warm-hearted neigh- 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 155 

borliness and have personal friendships. It may 
be a home of moderate means, of the plodding 
farmer or mechanic, or even a poor man's hum- 
ble cottage, but it will be just as happy and no 
less influential. 

It is all important, however, to recognize that 
though the home historically, as an institution, 
comes first and the church then second in order 
of time, actually now the Christian home is al- 
ways the creation of the earnest and strong 
church, and the home's religious life must be 
perennially fed by the church. 

The habit of regular church-going is neces- 
sary to the continuance of the Christian home. 
Family worship ceases where church attendance 
becomes fitful, and private Bible reading and 
prayer soon follow. The new tides of thought so 
necessary to real rest from business cares and re- 
freshing recuperation must proceed also from the 
church as well as from the country landscape. 
It is the vision of God which makes the world 
most wonderful to see. One or two evenings a 
week at the church will make the other nights at 
home really satisfying. And the Sabbath serv- 
ices intermitting the fellowship of home for a 
few hours return to the home in deeper com- 
munion. 

The love of husband and wife that puts God 
first produces a better second love than any first 
love that leaves God out. As one husband said 
to his sweet wife, who as a real saint of God had 



156 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

frankly told him she must always have love for 
God deepest, " I would rather, dear, be second in 
such love as yours than first in any worldly 
woman's love I ever knew." Religious devotion 
never lessens home joys but wonderfully deepens 
them, and there is nothing else that perpetuates 
home joys. 

Parental obligations can be met in the country 
Christian home. The father has time to instruct 
his children in religious and moral truth and 
leisurely to read the Bible with them. He may 
develop comradeship with them which is the 
strongest factor in training them. There may 
grow real sympathy with youthful aspirations, 
youthful struggles, and genuine experiences in 
this glad comradeship in which the father keeps 
young and the boys become wise. For it takes 
time to get truly acquainted even with one's own 
child. 

There are, however, many country homes still 
with few comforts for wife and children. The 
kitchen fireplace is the only warm spot in win- 
ter and the parlor is cold as an ice-house. Bed- 
rooms have water frozen in them, and the boys 
who sleep under the roof find little heaps of snow 
on their bed-clothes. The general condition is 
cheerless, unadorned, and forbidding. No won- 
der the best rooms are closed also in summer to 
keep out the flies. In the great prosperity of 
farm work to-day some of the larger returns 
ought to be spent for love. There is no longer 



CHRIS TIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 



iS7 



any excuse for the hardships imposed upon the 
family. The first expenditures should be for a 
complete reconstruction of the home and its sur- 
roundings, in which so much of life is lived. 
Home on the farm is not merely a place to have 
supper and to sleep after midnight for a few 
hours. It is workshop, clubhouse, and all the 
world for most of the year. Love and happiness 
do cost something but not so much as heartaches, 
crimes, and excesses later in life because love 
was not in the home nor happiness there and the 
children fled elsewhere to find it. 

The privations are sorest and the burdens 
heaviest in this kind of farm-house on the wife 
and mother, she whom the now thoughtlessly hard 
man promised to love and make happy. Former 
President Roosevelt says, " I want to say a 
special word for one who is often the very hard- 
est worked laborer on the farm — the farmer's 
wife. I emphatically believe that for the great 
majority of women, the really indispensable in- 
dustry in which they should engage is the indus- 
try of the home. But this does not mean that' she 
should be an over-worked drudge. There is 
plenty that is hard and disagreeable in the neces- 
sary work of actual life and under the best cir- 
cumstances, and no matter how tender and con- 
siderate the husband, the wife will have at least 
her full share of work and worry and anxiety; 
but if the man is worth his salt he will try to 



158 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



take as much as possible of the burden off the 
shoulders of his helpmate." * 

From one county of farming people, the Ladies' 
Home Journal (February, 1909) reports the ex- 
periences of farmers' wives gathered by an earnest 
little society of women anxious to improve their 
condition. This is only one county, and better 
counties and farm regions there are, but there are 
yet too many like these women. One thousand 
queries were sent out to every woman above 
twenty years of age asking — Were you brought 
up on the farm? If you are not married, would 
you prefer a farmer for a husband ? What is the 
hardest part of woman's work on the farm? 
What do you think would greatly help a 
woman's work on the farm? WTiat do you think 
of a " rest room " for farm women in town ? 

Out of 1 100 letters, 956 answers were received. 
They were direct and straight to the point. 684 
of the women had been brought up on the farm, 
and three-fourths of the girls said they did not 
want a farmer for a husband because they had 

* Every farmhouse should contain Will Carleton's " Farm 
Ballads " — the poems " Betsy and I are Out," " Over the 
Hills to the Poor House," and others are full of quaint 
pathos, homely truths, and genuine feeling ; and also " Aunt 
Jane of Kentucky " by Eliza Calvert Hall, a book so stirring, 
keen and sympathetically true to human nature in the country 
that every man and woman there ought to read it. Former 
President Roosevelt declares the chapter in it on " Sallie 
Ann's Experience in the Meeting " deserves to be circulated 
everywhere as a tract on loving home life. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 159 

seen how their mothers slaved from dawn, and 
before dawn to night. Their fathers thought of 
crops and cattle to the sacrifice of their wives. 
One said, " Not a horse on our farm works so 
long or so hard as father lets mother work." An- 
other said, " Not a convenience has mother in her 
kitchen ; but father has every new contrivance in 
his barn and he has plenty of means; land all 
paid for ; money in bank, yet not a hired girl." 

This the daughters of this farm county said. 
The wives say the same thing. In nearly every 
letter the cry is raised that the men give no con- 
sideration. One woman writes of having six 
small children, a farm of 360 acres all paid for, 
sixty cows and three hired men, and money in 
bank, but no hired girl though she asked for one 
over and over. She has no washing machine, no 
sewing machine, no facilities for baking or doing 
things, a wretched old cook stove, and not enough 
pans or dishes. She saved " egg money " for 
five years to buy a rug for the sitting-room, and 
her husband took it for a new gasoline engine 
for the barn. She saved again to get a dummy 
waiter to save the many trips into the cellar but 
her husband said it was not necessary and a sulky 
plow was! 

Yet not a single woman complained of any 
kind of work as too hard; it was the never-end- 
ing, ceaseless drudgery of it all — with no con- 
sideration, no appreciation. They would not 
mind the work if they were only given some nee- 



xSo RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

essary conveniences and a little appreciation. 
One farmer's wife cleverly put it : " A farmer's 
wife should have the faith of a Methodist, the 
cleanliness of a Baptist, the penance-spirit of a 
Catholic, and the belief in perseverance of a Pres- 
byterian, to be a success on the farm." A few 
expressed the wish that they might occasionally 
hear a piece of music, or read a book, or see a 
picture, however cheap, but most of them only 
asked for the absolutely necessary utensils to 
w T ork with, " arrangements at least as convenient 
as the arrangements of the horse and cow barns, 
the corn crib or the hay loft." 

Here and there was a happy wife with a hu- 
mane and loving husband, but the vast majority 
of cases were denied ordinary, human appreci- 
ation for all their slavish toil. " Give me that," 
said one woman, " and I'll work my nails off ! " 
How unspeakably pathetic is all this true story 
of many lives in one single county of Christian 
America in this year of civilization. We know 
there are better farm homes but can it be that 
the majority in our country are anywhere near 
such a condition? 

Many letters from homes were received. 
Some of them tell of farmers' homes fitted up 
with all the latest conveniences and even luxur- 
ies — telephones, piano-players, the latest books, 
the current magazines, and so on. These letters 
came from many sections and let us hope they 
represent the real majority of the whole. But 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. j; 6 1 

other letters came in comment upon the strange 
exhibit of that one rural county and confirmed 
the sad stories with similar ones of their own. 

Sadly enough there are such homes in many 
other parts of the United States. We cannot, of 
course, estimate what proportion of the whole 
they are, but a wider inquiry instituted by the 
magazine * " Good Housekeeping " in co-oper- 
ation with noted farm journals, The American 
Agriculturist, Farm and Home, The Orange Judd 
Farmer, and the New England Homestead 
brought a thousand letters in response to a series 
of questions. These disclose conditions of over- 
burdened drudgery and cruel hardships, which, 
however, most of the wives attribute to thought- 
lessness of their husbands or old notions of 
woman's inferior place, but this seems all too 
charitable a view to take of men who live to-day 
on New York state farms, in Massachusetts, 
Iowa, and California. Some farmers' wives re- 
sent the charge that their husbands are stingy, 
thoughtless, or cruelly exacting, and in a few 
cases describe excellent conditions of farm home 
life. But others of those who protest show their 
own lack of any aspirations for better things or of 
modern home conveniences. 

Here are a few sentences from these letters: 
" My husband thinks the wife must always be at 
her post. He can go where and when he pleases 
without telling her, but she must be ' all atten- 

* Good Housekeeping, July 1909, pages 41 to 43. 



^2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

tion ' when he returns and ask no question. I do 
not receive any cash as a rule." " I have had only 
two vacations in twenty-two years." " I do not 
perform any farm work except making the butter, 
feeding the calves, raising chickens and ducks and 
making garden. My husband does not believe in 
good social times for his wife. I have only one 
outing a year, an afternoon picnic." " I live in 
a rich farming section in Iowa, but the women 
here have no labor-saving machinery. It is bit- 
terly hard for a cultured woman to slave away 
and find no time to read or study." " California 
farmers as a rule do not know they have wives. 
A wife is merely a machine. I have not been on 
a vacation for ten years." " I would like to go 
to town once in a while and spend money to suit 
myself. But my husband buys the children's and 
my clothes and we wear what he gets. He is not 
the only man of this kind in our neighborhood. 
I have been to town three times in ten years and 
have had four new best dresses, two hats and one 
coat. You see, I am the stay-at-home kind and 
the go-without kind too." This last is a New 
York woman, very slight build, weighs only ninety 
pounds, thirty years old, but does an astonishing 
amount of farm work, besides household cares 
and the care of two children. It is true, doubt- 
less, that there are unkind husbands in cities but 
these farm revelations show far worse than the 
average. 
What Horace Bushnell called the "Age of 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, i (>$ 

Homespun," when the family clothing was all 
made in the farm home and the village home, has 
forever passed away. In 1810 Albert Gallatin, 
Secretary of the Treasury, reported to Congress 
investigations made in every state, and he ex- 
pressed the opinion that about " two-thirds of the 
clothing, including hosiery and house and table 
linen, worn and used by the inhabitants of the 
United States, who do not reside in cities is the 
product of family manufacture." In Pennsyl- 
vania there were 997,346 yards of woolen cloth 
and 611,481 yards of cotton cloth made in fami- 
lies and only 65,326 yards of cotton cloth, and 
30,666 yards of woolen cloth in factories. The 
proportion was about the same in all the states.* 
And this was in the period of transition. Earlier 
in colonial times it was the rare exception to wear 
anything in country towns but homespun. But 
with all that spinning and weaving, done chiefly 
by the " spinsters " and wives, it is doubtful 
whether they were burdened as farmers' wives of 
the rush and greed for money in our day are 
burdened. In any case it seems inexcusable not 
to furnish the wife with every possible labor- 
saving machine and device on farms where the 
farmer uses all the machinery he can to lighten 
his toil. 

Professor Charles W. Burkett, in Good House- 
keeping (Feb. 1909), sums up some practical im- 
provements which may be immediately made in 
* " The Country Town," Anderson, pp. 12-14. 



164 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

the farm home. He writes from large personal 
knowledge, and with tender sympathy for the 
hard-worked wife and daughters, but also with 
full appreciation of the many difficulties of the 
situation. He calls his suggestions : — 

EIGHT STEPS IN ADVANCE. 

In the first place, let music be made much of in the country 
home. 

Second, make over the house so that the bathroom may be 
provided. 

Third, indulge in an occasional trip or visit to near-by and 
distant points. 

Fourth, utilize more freely all intellectual advantages, like 
lectures, books, papers and magazines. 

Fifth, devote less time to mere manual work, substituting 
new conveniences and better methods for the old ways of per- 
forming household duties. 

Sixth, secure a better-arranged kitchen and make water and 
drainage available to it. 

Seventh, introduce modern comforts throughout the house, 
like better lights, up-to-date methods of heating, comfortable 
furniture, and home furnishings. 

Eighth, give attention to the home labor problem, so the 
drudging work which so frequently falls to the woman's lot 
may be taken from her shoulders. This means that churning, 
washing, ironing, and other common tasks will be done by 
modern tools and appliances. 

All these advances can be introduced easily, 
quickly, and inexpensively as compared with the 
costly machines the farmer now is accustomed to 
buy. In many modern farm-houses, Professor 
Burkett says, they have been introduced already. 
And whatever they cost, even of sacrifice, is less 
than the daily sacrifice of mothers and daughters. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 165 

He further suggests to the women that they 
can do much to secure these things by agitating 
for them persistently. In some cases several 
years will be required to attain to these improve- 
ments. The wife, too, sometimes closes her best 
bedrooms, her parlor, and reserves the best 
dishes and best tableware for the extra company. 
But are not husband and children the best com- 
pany ? Abandon these " spare " bedrooms, open 
up the parlor windows, and let the family have 
the use of all the house. 

All this means, he says, that the woman must 
have a clear notion of her work. She needs to 
know how to arrange the kitchen, how to set 
the table, what to provide for in the living-room, 
how to make the home cozy and comfortable. 
She needs to know how to make herself at- 
tractive, to have good taste in music and pic- 
tures, and as much as she can of good cooking 
and housework. I never see a big, fine-looking 
barn with a small, ill-kept house and yard that 
I do not think the man who owns the place is 
more of a beast than a man; he certainly thinks 
more of his live stock than of his wife and 
children. 

The farmer men might well form an associa- 
tion to look into this matter for it is their bus- 
iness more than the woman's on the farm. 
Much of it has doubtless come from the hard, 
struggling days when the men also toiled as 
hard. But now in better days let there be ex- 



j66 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

penditures on love, on home, on the wife and 
daughters. No investment will pay so wonder- 
fully. 

The home should provide sports for outdoor 
life in winter and summer. Country sports in 
winter are a delightful memory of many people 
in cities, and a little spent on sleds and skates 
will add immensely to this joyous and healthy 
exercise. Some farm-houses have richly added 
summer games of the many well-known kinds. 
These are as necessary for best home life and 
character as schools and churches. We do not 
want any more dull boys with all work and no 
play on the farm. 

The new era will not disturb any good thing 
in the old life in the country. It will add the 
larger sympathies of the world-wide horizon, 
the daily newspaper, and the magazine, the more 
frequent visits to the city, the better country 
church and school. The decline of real homes 
in cities is to be compensated for by a finer 
type, the Christian country home, and these 
homes will expand influences to enthrone Christ 
in all country life. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

EDUCATIONAL FORCES CHRISTIANIZING. 

The public school is probably the most power- 
ful of all American institutions for our national 
well-being. It has grown from humble begin- 
nings of inefficiency and brief terms a year to the 
real free college of our cities and the great free 
Universities of our states. The poorest child in 
America has an open way to the broadest culture 
the world has ever known. 

The unifying influence of the public school 
is solving the most serious problems like those of 
immigration, social castes on account of wealth, 
and religious bigotry. 

The country public school has shared in the 
steady and rapid advance of all educational in- 
stitutions but not fully. It lags far behind in 
many sections and here the Christian people of 
the country must take hold vigorously. 

The relation of education to Christianizing is 
too well recognized and intimate to require more 
than restating here. The great commandment of 
167 



j.68 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

the law is to love the Lord our God with all our 
mind* as one duty. And Christ's influence on 
the world's intellectual life and its educational 
growth has been the real spring of modern prog- 
ress in schools. The finest paintings and sculp- 
ture have been inspired by his teachings or scenes 
in his life, the noblest classic music has the same 
themes, the grandest poems have their subjects 
and content in the Bible, Christ's church has 
founded more colleges, universities, libraries, and 
educational research than all other agencies com- 
bined, and his people began the free schools of 
the world. 

How then can a large educational movement 
be started in rural districts? 

I. The schools laws of the state should be made 
the best possible. The minimum term, now only 
five months in some cases, should be raised to 
nine months. The short term works many seri- 
ous disadvantages. It makes impossible the se- 
curing of thoroughly good teachers. Men and 
women of education and ability cannot live in 
sections where they receive employment for only 
five or six months in the year. So that the school 
is restricted to the people who reside in the place 
and have other business for part of the year or to 
unambitious, shiftless, poorly equipped teachers. 
But the community needs new blood, some out- 

* In Deut. 6 : 5 from which Christ quotes it is " might " but 
he makes it " mind " as also the lawyer in Luke 10 : 27 does. 
How significant ! 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 169 

side teachers who will bring to it new stand- 
points, new ideas, and the infusion of a new 
enthusiasm. 

The short term is hardest on the more eager 
and brightest scholars of the place. These al- 
ways deserve the first consideration for the sake 
of the community itself. Five months may be 
more than enough for some farmer boys who lack 
aspirations or push, as it is for some city boys, 
but if any community is raised it will be by those 
at the top, by developing its best and willing 
people. For the leaders of the future, the coming- 
men of business and the professions, and for the 
scientific farmer the future needs let every man 
work for a nine-months school term. Some farm- 
ing districts have ten months. 

Compulsory education has won its way, and 
is no longer an experiment. It should be adopted 
at once by all the states backed by the farm 
constituency, and strictly enforced. The farm 
is a child peril as well as the factory. Every 
teacher in the country school, like the writer in 
early experience and observation since, knows 
how many splendid boys cannot begin until 
near Christmas on account of farm work, and 
how early in March they are gone. I was haunted 
for years by the despairing face of a boy who 
had made splendid progress during the term but 
was cut short early by the opening of spring. 
It was when he told me he would be obliged to 
stop next week and it was no use to take the ad- 



170 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

vanced work we were discussing. The greed or 
the supposed necessity of the father cripples the 
child's future for gain, as New York beggars 
used to cripple their child's body to arouse sym- 
pathy and get more money. Is it any less harm- 
ful because the farmer father is not so cruel but 
only densely stupid in crippling his child's mind? 
It is very shortsighted to be sure for he will lose 
much more money in the end than he now saves 
by that boy's toil. But it seems useless ever to 
argue the matter with such men. The state 
must sternly lay its hands upon them and demand 
the rights of the child to the thorough prepara- 
tion for life which the state has provided freely. 
In the country compulsory education laws are 
more difficult to enforce because of close per- 
sonal acquaintance, family relations, and lack of 
strong public sentiment. Here the Christian 
people must step in and, in love for the child as 
Christ loved him, compel enforcement of this 
law upon every one. The law is easy enough 
and reasonable in regarding exceptional cases! 

2. Higher standards of qualifications for 
teachers should be steadily raised. Normal 
schools do not yet everywhere furnish enough 
graduates to supply all schools, and of course 
some of the graduates are not ideal teachers. 
Better ones are sometimes home educated as in 
every profession. The examinations of appli- 
cants, therefore, should be broad, sensible, and 
thorough. A single good teacher of fine spirit 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 



171 



and enthusiasm for real learning has made many 
a great man. 

The influence of the teacher during the child's 
early years is immeasurable.* The mother who 
sadly takes her little one to the school the first 
day feeling that she has lost her baby, now dis- 
covers to her dismay that the teacher exerts a 
unique influence, beyond her own. The child 
corrects the mother and quotes the teacher as 
settling all questions. He has become the stand- 
ard of learning and good taste, he is looked up 
to with a strange reverence, and is often warmly 
loved. What if the teacher can also be such a 
man as to become the standard of goodness to 
the child? His spirit so courteous, so- brave for 
all right things, so pure in thought and act, so 
forceful in character that the child is forever 
turned in admiration to the good and the true? 
Is it not worth giving large attention when so 
much depends upon the moral character, the real 
gentlemanliness, and the enthusiasm for learn- 
ing thoroughly and accurately in the teacher? 

A wise community will call the teacher with 
care second to that which is given the call to a 
pastor, if even second to that. He is examined 
by the county official or state examiner as to in- 
tellectual and pedagogic ability and concerning 
his reputation for moral character. But the wise 
school board goes into other equally important 

* DuBois " Point of Contact in Teaching " ; " Studies in 
Education," Barnes. 



172 



RURAL CHRIS TEND OM. 



matters. His personal manners and appearance 
are of vital concern. The children's habits for 
courtesy and cleanliness will largely reflect those 
of the teacher. His genuine love for teaching, 
for books, for nature, and for children and young 
people is vital to his success. He cannot impart 
or inspire real learning if he is a hireling for 
mere pay. It is the beautiful reward which one 
good teacher cherishes that sixteen pupils of his 
school became teachers, and one of them ex- 
plained that it was because teaching as he did it 
seemed so delightful they all wanted to engage 
in it. 

The country teacher surely should have an 
enthusiasm for nature study. Xo books he can 
teach will mean so rich a real culture of mind 
and soul as the inspiration he can give to scien- 
tific observation of trees and plants, of flowers 
and birds, insects, minerals, and other objects so 
abundantly in reach around his school. If he is 
a specialist in one nature study he will become an 
untold blessing. It is easy now to procure the 
needed text-books in any line of these delightful 
pursuits. 

One early teacher inspired a large school to 
rapid calculating so that many of them became 
notable for the way they could add, multiply, 
or divide with speed and accuracy; another, a 
teacher of rhetoric, was successful in instructing 
.several excellent authors to attain distinction. 
The teacher as an inspiration is even more im- 



CHRIS T1A N PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREA ^.173 

portant than his work in the strictest accuracy. 
His interest in the boys and girls will be tireless 
and after school hours he will be found with 
them in larger inspirations. 

What pay should such a teacher be given? 
There is even less sentiment for an adequate 
salary for teachers than there is in the country 
for the underpaid pastor. Think of a five months' 
term at twenty-five dollars a month for securing 
a man whose influence on the character and suc- 
cess of the children of the town or village is be- 
yond all estimating for good or for stunting, re- 
tarding or demoralizing! What would one of 
those good fathers take to permit some one to 
cripple his child for all time, to give him wrong 
conceptions of life, of his opportunity or duty? 
And to blast most of the fine chances he had for 
becoming a great man? Or, on the other hand, 
what will he not give to have that son or daughter 
receive the vision of life of a broadly educated, 
noble Christian gentleman, and enthusiast for 
learning. Yet many such Christian men will not 
interfere when a few men on the local school 
board fix the teacher's salary at a figure that 
can secure only incompetency, inexperience, and 
unambition of every kind in the teacher. There 
is no need to wish them ill for it, they will be 
paid fearfully in the dwarfing of the souls and 
minds of their children. One good teacher among 
the underpaid told his grim joke of a burglar 
who broke into a teacher's home to rob. He was 



174 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



caught but had taken nothing and the Judge 
sentenced him — to an insane asylum. 

3. Therefore elect the best citizens on the 
school board. It is astonishing that intelligent 
communities allow themselves to be afflicted with 
the slow and utterly unfit men on some of these 
boards. The good citizen does not go to the 
nominating meeting or the primary. Politicians 
pay their personal debts by giving the office to 
henchmen v/ho in turn care nothing for it except 
as a stepping-stone to other offices and for the 
petty graft in it. There is no duty all the year 
so momentous in importance as to attend these 
elections and secure the very best citizens for the 
supervision of schools. The stinginess of a few 
men has once in a while put a man on the board 
expressly to stop all improvements and progress 
for the sake of lower taxes. The only remedy 
for such wrongs to the child is a vigorous agi- 
tation on the wonderful benefits of education. 
What remarkable illustration of it in the history 
of New England ! " When John Cabot Lodge 
studied the distribution of ability in the United 
States he found that five great Western states 
produced only twenty-seven men in ninety years 
mentioned in American and English encyclo- 
pedias while little Massachusetts had 2,686 or- 
ators, authors, philosophers, and statesmen. The 
difference is almost wholly of education for the 
West had probably just as great natural ability/'* 

* Rev. Dr. N. D. Hillis, in " A Man's Value to Society." 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. Y 



75 



Think of what would happen if every town of 
less than eighteen thousand would accomplish the 
wonders of what education had done for North- 
ampton, Mass., even now containing only about 
18,000 people. " It has trained 114 lawyers, 112 
ministers, 95 physicians, 100 educators, 7 his- 
torians, 14 authors, among them George Ban- 
croft, John Lothrop Motley, Professor Whitney, 
J. G. Holland ; 38 officers of the State govern- 
ment, 28 of the United States government includ- 
ing Senators and one President." This is Rev. 
Dr. Hillis's enumeration. 

Think of what a marvelous power is a book in 
shaping lives. Milton says, " A good book is 
the precious life-blood of a master spirit to a 
life beyond life." Carlyle : " All that mankind 
has done, thought or been is lying in magic 
preservation in the pages of books. " Well does 
Emerson cry out — " Give me a book, health, and 
a June day and I will make the pomp of kings 
ridiculous." 

Who can estimate what a library in the country 
public schools is doing or might do for souls 
loving books like Emerson? Well does gentle 
Charles Lamb bid us to say " grace " reverently 
before reading a good book. It is encouraging 
to know that former President Roosevelt's Com- 
mission found the farmers deeply concerned for 
better schools. They want a new* kind of country 
school that will fit their young people for country 
life; teaching them outdoors also, to work with 



1 76 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

tools, how to prepare the soil, how to plant well, 
how to care for animals ; to cook and to sew, to 
keep accounts, and a deep interest in nature to 
see its beauty as well as its profit. 

State and county superintendents are already 
responding to these needs and working toward 
them. Agricultural colleges are giving brief 
special courses and demonstrations of better farm 
work. Teaching them sanitation of the farm 
and the home is felt to be specially important 
in view of the sad lack of it in many sections. 
This is to be practically developed in the schools. 

A notable instance of this new kind of a coun- 
try school is the Holly Springs High School, in 
Wake County, North Carolina. The school se- 
cured four acres of land and built an eight- 
thousand dollar house, the people liberally con- 
tributing in addition to taxes. They planted the 
ground in cotton the labor being done by the 
pupils, and made enough money to lengthen the 
school term two months. Another school tried 
the school farm and next year five schools did it 
with different crops, all being quite successful. 
Now twelve schools are planning to operate small 
farms and children and parents are interested up 
to genuine enthusiasm. The school terms are 
lengthened, school buildings put into splendid 
order, and larger schemes of education are find- 
ing ready acceptance. The children are educated 
not for the city but for the country life. 

4. With a good board the Christian citizens 
will begin a large development of the schools. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 7 y 

There are fads in public school education in 
the feverish passion for progress. A principal 
of a large city, among others, gave a lecture 
recently presenting the " new ideas he was push- 
ing," the most absurd collection of half digested 
notions of an extreme psycho-physical school. 
Such follies are always incident to real progress, 
and the public schools at their best to-day are far 
from what their able leaders desire. 

But many steps of progress are unquestionably 
helpful and fundamental. 

The country school should be graded as far as 
possible in scholars, teachers, and courses of 
study. A central High School should be pro- 
vided for the district or township. 

The kindergarten ought to be begun in every 
town for the smallest children, and the manual 
training school or course in several schools be 
in every school district. There are county school 
boards who have accomplished it even in sparsely 
settled farm districts. 

The plan of wagons for hauling children from 
a larger territory to make possible larger schools 
and graded schools in one building has proven a 
great success. The expense is not greater than 
for separate small schools of twenty scholars or 
less, and enthusiasm, better teachers, and social 
development are effected. These large wagons 
have certain routes and the children meet them 
at convenient points near their homes. 



178 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

4. Better school buildings will come naturally. 
Larger state appropriations for education should 
be persistently agitated for, more efficient super- 
vision demanded, and an intelligent public opin- 
ion trained. At the foundation must be this pub- 
lic sentiment educated to the highest possibilities 
of the public school. An occasional town meet- 
ing on school problems ought to be called. 

5. With educated public opinion there will be 
demand for systematic moral training in public 
schools. The study of practical ethics is imper- 
ative. The teaching of personal duty in all the 
relations of life, the discussion of fine moral ques- 
tions, and the practical watch over character 
development is more important surely than in- 
tellectual training. Teachers of the better sort 
have long desired it and are doing it but un- 
systematically and with smaller results than we 
must have. A well planned study of morals and 
manners should be demanded. 

The remarkable results from one single effort 
at such work is now before the whole world. The 
teaching of the effects of alcohol and narcotics 
on the human system was begun by law in about 
forty states in 1876. Only one generation of 
public school work on that subject has passed 
and we see the whole country swept by a wave 
of rage against the saloon and its evils, that is 
driving it out of many states forever, and out 
of large parts of all the states. There is no 
other agency to which this temperance wave can 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, i 79 

be attributed so clearly as to the conviction 
created by the teaching in the schools. 

Let there be similar moral teaching on devel- 
oping a sound and pure body free from vice, and 
in a decade we shall have our schools morally 
clean instead of the fearful vices now so preva- 
lent in many sections. The teacher talks to the 
parent, many have done so to the writer's knowl- 
edge, about the impure conduct of the boy and 
girl, but the angry parent will not believe it and 
the teacher knows her position will be imperilled 
if she goes on in that way. Nothing but a wisely 
graded course on this evil, and on property rights, 
truthfulness, fidelity, courage, gentleness, sym- 
pathy, and all other virtues will meet the moral 
needs of childhood in the schools. 

6. Then will come the wise demand that the 
Bible be taught, not simply read, in the state 
schools. On this question on which the National 
Educational Association, composed of public 
school leaders and educators in general, has re- 
peatedly spoken with practical unanimity for the 
Bible as a text-book, it is astonishing that there 
is absolute chaos in the public mind. By unan- 
swerable argument it has been shown with ut- 
most clearness that it is in no sense introducing 
sectarian instruction, it is no union of church and 
state, but that the Bible is essential to a complete 
education. Think of the finest literature, " the 
literature both of power and of beautiful form," 
not studied at all in our schools ; of the profound- 



180 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

est and most practical philosophy of life and 
moral teaching which is " a voice and not an 
echo " neglected ; and of the book fundamental 
to all modern progress driven out of the schools 
of a nation, declared by the United States Su- 
preme Court to be a Christian nation ! Ruskin 
and Carlyle and Daniel Webster declared they 
got the matchless style of their English from the 
Bible. Even Huxley and Tyndall, free thinkers 
though they are, urge it for all schools. But in 
our country the enemies of the Bible are bold 
and insistent and its friends divided, uninformed, 
and undecided. In the cities certain elements 
are already in control against the Bible in the 
schools, and the rural sections must swing us 
back to good sense in the Bible's place in educa- 
tion. Let every good citizen in country places 
study this question, agitate, demand, put the 
Bible into the schools. 

7. The country church may greatly aid the 
public schools. It is the excellent custom of some 
pastors to preach a sermon on public schools at 
the beginning of the term. They seek to arouse 
greater respect for the teacher, urge some cur- 
rent improvements, and in general a regular 
attendance and best work. 

8. Many communities have a college in addi- 
tion to public schools or some fine preparatory 
academy. These are usually struggling for very 
existence, the village or town blind to their ex- 
traordinary opportunity. A few earnest citizens 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPL ES MUST BE SPREAD, j 8 1 

can rally the farmers and neighbors to the sup- 
port of the school or college, and they will have 
their reward as is usual in such agitation in the 
fine effect upon their own children. Call a pub- 
lic meeting to arouse interest in the college. 
Urge the young people to go. It will mean a 
new era for the entire region. Pastors and Sun- 
day-school superintendents may do a great serv- 
ice by standing for a college education for all 
the young people. Sometimes this has been the 
greatest work of an earnest pastor that he was 
the means of persuading some future great man 
to enter college. Professor Butterfield of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, a member of 
the National Commission on Country Life, says, 
" Under co-operation comes the idea of getting 
country people to work together in developing 
organizations for educational purposes, social 
purposes, and business purposes. The Grange is 
one of the best examples of this co-operation. 
Education needs attention in the improvement of 
the country schools, the placing of agriculture in 
the curriculum, better high school facilities, the 
establishment of more complete agricultural col- 
leges, and more encouragement of extension 
work — lectures and demonstrations." He says 
also, " The country church must play an in- 
creasingly larger part in the development of 
country life." 

The farmer is beginning to respond to these 
educational efforts. We give one illustration of 



1 82 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

many in the states. The most surprising results 
have come in Wisconsin where the great state 
University is projecting many educational ad- 
vantages for farmers. Mr. Lincoln Steffens, 
(American Magazine, February, 1909) tells of 
one family from the country of which the son 
was on a " Varsity team," the daughter in the 
college of Letters and Science, and the father 
and mother came to Madison in the winter, the 
one to attend the " Housekeepers' Conference " 
in the College of Agriculture, and the other the 
Farmers' Course of study, a ten-day practical 
but thoroughly scientific study of improving, bet- 
ter apparatus, experimentation in grain, and the 
chemistry of dairying. Three hundred and 
ninety-three farmers in 1907 took a longer special 
course on farming and have stirred every neigh- 
borhood in the state with their practical results. 
A new enthusiasm for farm work has come and 
boys stay on it instead of going to the cities. The 
University's special investigation into oat smut 
has saved five millions a year, and whole sections 
of the state have planted the better seeds for 
other grains and increased output and profits 
fifty to one hundred per cent. ; the average 
increase per acre of corn rose from 2J to 
41 bushels, 15,000,000 bushels a year worth 
$6,000,000. 

Now Farmers' Institutes cover that state with 
lectures and demonstrations by University ex- 
perts from two to five days and these lead to the 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, j 83 

University's short course at Madison begun in 
1903. The time for it is two weeks in dead of 
winter when no work is doing on the farm. 
The first year 175 farmers came; second year, 
227 ; then the succeeding years, 401, 601, 701, and 
now 2,000 are expected. One farmer said, 
"Great stuff we're getting here, ain't it?" and 
then he told of some values of it. Two hundred 
Farmers' Institutes are now supported by the 
state. All this is new life of intellectual stim- 
ulus on the farm, as one story illustrates. In 
the little town of Cottage Grove lives a boy 
named Mellish. He lives with his mother, sister 
and grandfather on a forty-acre farm which is 
their support. The boy is so deeply interested 
in astronomy that he constructed a telescope, and 
after his day's work searches the sky with it. 
In 1907 he discovered two of the seven or eight 
comets that were found by the astronomers of 
the world. He continues to work on the farm 
and is taking the University correspondence 
course in Mathematics. The University going 
out found that boy and is looking for others like 
him. 

But Wisconsin is only a little in the lead of 
what all the states are doing for the farmer, for 
his home, and for his boys and girls.* During 
1906-7 Farmers' Institutes were held in all the 

* See Report of Hon. John Hamilton, Director of Farmers' 
Institutes in the United States Dept. of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C, for 1907. 



XS4. RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

states excepting Nevada and Texas, and in all 
the territories excepting Alaska and Porto Rico. 
Forty-four states report attendance 1,596,877, 
an increase over previous year of 297,705. The 
number of Institutes in 1907 was 3,927, a gain of 
406, an average attendance for each session of 
the one-day, two-day, and three-day Institutes 
of 138.8, an increase of 24.8 over the average 
session of 1906. The amount spent by the states 
on these Institutes was $284,450. Fourteen 
states held other Institutes to the number of 125 ; 
five states ran railroad specials, two states held 
field demonstrations with an attendance of 1000. 
Eleven states held women's Institutes in which 
domestic economy and farm homes were dis- 
cussed in addition to technical crops ; eight states 
report 363 sessions of boys' and girls' Institutes ; 
and one a summer school for farmers, held in 
1906, for seven days, with an attendance of 405, 
at which ten to twelve hours' instruction was 
given each day. In Kansas 2,794 boys engaged 
in corn contests in 40 counties, 250 girls were 
listed in contests in growing of flowers, and 150 
in contests in home gardening. In Indiana eight 
summer Institutes were held specially for farm- 
ers' wives and children, and in Illinois 60 out 
of 102 counties were represented at the two 
weeks' short course in winter at the University 
at Champaign by winners in corn-judging and 
bread-judging contests. The teaching force 
actually employed by the states in these Institutes 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 185 

was 1,084. Of these, 386 were from the agri- 
cultural colleges, 605 hold university or college 
degrees, and many of the others were practical 
farmers highly successful in specialities and some 
of them exceedingly attractive teachers. 

All these we have given in detail to prove be- 
yond a doubt that these Institutes are of high 
character intellectually and are growing in pop- 
ular power wonderfully. But it is estimated that 
probably only one in ten of our enormous farm- 
ing population has yet been reached by their 
helpfulness. We are therefore recording the 
beginnings of new history which will become a 
peaceful revolution in our farming conditions. 

For Pennsylvania,* one of the states which 
issues an annual report of this educational move- 
ment for farmers, there are seventy lecturers em- 
ployed for nearly three months in winter. They 
held 379 institutes, generally two-day sessions, 
and talked on from three to eleven subjects each, 
most of the subjects being upon technical crop 
problems and methods of cultivation, but many 
also of a general nature touching the welfare of 
the farm home and environment. Instruction 
trains stopping at many points for a few hours 
were a unique feature of this work. 

All this instruction aims at thoroughly scien- 
tific investigation and discussion. It is strenu- 
ously practical and produces results that can be 
measured in better and larger crops, and improved 

* See Penna. State Bulletin of Farmers' Institutes, 1908. 



1 86 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

material conditions. But great as this move- 
ment has become it is only one phase of the 
Progress of Agricultural Education.* " Agri- 
culture is recognized as a teachable subject hav- 
ing educational value " not only in Cornell Uni- 
versity, in Wisconsin University, but in Columbia, 
Clark, and others. The National Education As- 
sociation is considering it as a subject for the 
regular public school eourse, and the pioneer 
county to adopt it in the public school organiza- 
tion is Cecil County, Maryland. Cecil County 
opened its Agricultural High School, Nov. 5, 
1906, in a small building with nine acres of land. 
Thirty-eight pupils were enrolled the first day 
and fifty-one for the year. Others in different 
states are rapidly following. 

Gardens for planting vegetables and flowers 
by public school children have been in operation, 
rapidly spreading over the country. Seeds for 
75,500 school gardens were sent out by the 
Department at Washington in a single year. 

In his first message to the Sixtieth Congress, 
Theodore Roosevelt said, " The farmer must not 
lose his independence, his initiative, his rugged 
self-reliance, yet he must learn to work in the 
heartiest co-operation with his fellows, exactly 
as the business man has learned to work ; and he 
must prepare to use to constantly better advan- 

* See Dept. of Agriculture's Reports in special bulletins 
M Reports of Progress of Agricultural Education " for 1906, 
and for 1907. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 8 7 

tage the knowledge that can be obtained from 
agricultural colleges, while he must insist upon 
a practical curriculum in the schools in which his 
children are taught. It should be one of our 
prime objects to put both the farmer and the 
mechanic on a higher plane of efficiency and re- 
ward, so as to increase their effectiveness in the 4 
economic world and therefore the dignity, the 
remuneration, and the power of their positions 
in the social world." 

The Grange, the well-known secret association 
of farmers, is again energetically and success- 
fully organizing the farmers for mutual help and 
large educational movements for improving the 
farm and home. The popular impression that the 
Grange is dead, or not now " a force of conse- 
quence " is a mistake. According to President 
Butterfield, the Grange has accomplished more 
for agriculture than has any other farm organ- 
ization. It has more real influence than it has 
ever had before ; and it is more nearly a national 
farmers' organization than any other in existence 
to-day." * 

The Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture 
reports its growth in that State (Letter to author, 
June, 1909). The Grange was organized "by 
Mr. O. H. Kelley in 1867. In 1873 there were 
20,000 Granges in 28 States comprising 750,000 
members. But from 1880 to 1890 the Grange de- 

* Compare President Butterfield, " Chapters in Rural 
Progress," p. 138. 



1 88 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

clined, but since 1890 there has been wide-spread 
revival of interest in it. In five leading states, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, Michigan, the total number of Granges in- 
creased, (1900-1905) 492 and in membership 
81,000. The full participation of women in the 
Grange, the broad educational and social plans 
of the organization, its co-operative business 
plans, legislative influencing, and general enthu- 
siasm for better rural conditions render it a large 
factor of promise for the future. 

The Interstate Commerce Commission in one 
of its reports to Congress gives a complete list 
of Agricultural Associations, local, state, and 
national. The number of such co-operative as- 
sociations of all kinds is fully twelve thousand,* 
of which the Grange, the Farmers' Union, Far- 
mers' Educational and Co-operative Union, and 
the American Society of Equity are found in 
several states. Many states have three hundred 
associations, a few nearly a thousand of them. 
Yet so great is the number of farmers and so 
widely scattered are they in America that as yet 
only a small proportion of them are organized. 
The Farmers' Union and the Grange promise 
most for national spread of co-operative power. 

The leaders of the Grange have been wise in 
using its great influence to further legislation 
by Congress and the states for the benefit of 
agricultural interests. They urge " the mental, 

* Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, 1907. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, j gg 

moral, and social development of the farmer and 
his family," as the most important of all. They 
are studying national affairs and national issues 
in an intelligent and thorough-going way that 
promises helpful influence for them in a right 
solution. On good roads, the conservation of 
natural resources so auspiciously promoted by 
former President Roosevelt, on Postal Savings 
Banks and Parcels Post, and on other vital ques- 
tions they are untiring in agitation and concen- 
tration of influence. They claim to have been 
largely influential in securing many important 
laws in the recent past, and they do not too 
strongly urge the importance of agriculture in 
these striking words ; * " The prosperity of agri- 
culture is the basis of prosperity in other indus- 
tries. Immense manufacturing plants and great 
transportation companies are dependent upon 
agriculture for business and prosperity. What 
contributes to the promotion of agriculture con- 
tributes to the highest development of a nation." 
Farmers have been very indifferent to organ- 
ization. Their natural independence and isola- 
tion have been against submission to set regula- 
tions and to social obligations. But the taste of 
united power and the delights of fellowship are 
winning them. The purposes of the Grange are 
lofty and broad for Christian and moral princi- 
ples, and it is to be hoped that its membership 

* See address of N. J. Bachelder, Master National Grange, 
1908. 



Xgo RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

will soon increase from about a million to em- 
brace the entire ten millions of farm workers and 
also their wives, for the Grange is the most hos- 
pitable of all organizations to woman. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SOCIAL VILLAGE CULTURE FOR CHRIST. 

The town, the village, and the farming region 
are indeed free in social life, but unrestraint and 
unconventionality are not necessarily ideal. The 
barriers of city castes are down, but the guards 
that mean true modesty, tender thoughtfulness, 
and noblest friendships may not yet be erected. 
The country freedom is not wholly an advantage. 
One pastor of profound thoughtfulness in a town 
speaks of " the evil of people knowing too much 
of each other," of the consequent idle gossip in- 
cessantly flowing, and the petty meannesses de- 
veloped. He means, of course, that* they dwell 
too largely upon trifling matters of each others' 
lives which they freely make it their business to 
investigate and disseminate. 

This pastor sees the social ailment but is his 
diagnosis accurate? It may be rather knowing 
too little of the real man or woman in the folly 
of making so much of his trifling faults and 
weaknesses. The man from the country goes to 
191 



I 9 2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

the city, becomes famous, and returns a great 
man to the astonishment of his neighbors. Jesus 
himself lived in a small town of this sort and was 
without honor there, and even when he returned 
as the wonder-working prophet, about whom the 
whole nation was talking, his neighbors were 
disgusted at his claims and drove him out. Was 
it that they knew too much of him? Was it 
not rather because they knew him only as the 
carpenter going to his daily toil, and as Joseph's 
son with James and Joses, very ordinary fellows, 
as his brothers, and his sisters, good young 
women, doubtless, but with no special gifts 
or promise? And Jesus himself had lived 
just an ordinary life since childhood, had never 
in Nazareth performed a miracle, nor made a 
public address, not anything different from Joseph 
or his brothers or sisters. 

Of course they did not know of his many trips 
to the hills and his all-night prayers with God; 
they did not remember his famous interview 
with the doctors in the Temple at Jerusalem 
nearly twenty years before, and probably that 
was the only such interview; they knew nothing 
of what was in his heart, or the plans of the 
kingdom growing in his mind, nor the wonderful 
teachings he was preparing in those long years. 
How very little they knew of him ! 

The stories of Jesus and the people of 
Nazareth, of David and his brothers and father 
who did not know him, and of Joseph and his 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 93 

family, are true to the social life of the village 
and town, where the gossiping people know each 
other only by surface characteristics. That is 
sure to be the case where there is such freedom 
of tongue with personal affairs. Why do not 
country people know each other fully? By the 
inevitable consequence that they fear to reveal 
the deeper and finer feelings and aspirations of 
their souls to such rude handling. The country 
boy with exalted ideals hides them even from 
his mother, for she would tell them and after she 
left the neighbors would laugh and jeer over 
them. 

How unfair the scales upon which they weigh 
their neighbors ! " Bill " Jones of the village to- 
day is despised because the uncle of his grand- 
father on his mother's side was a horse thief, or 
at least was once accused of stealing a horse, 
though some one argued in behalf of Bill that 
the horse had only wandered away and returned 
to the stable. But village memories of such 
transactions are long on the evil side and short on 
the other. Bill himself was not of a high 
order of good character and " would probably 
not be above stealing a horse himself if he had a 
chance,' , so that the ancient suspicion was kept 
alive against him. Did Bill ever steal ? " Not 
that anybody ever found out," nothing worse 
than apples from the orchards and that is not 
stealing there. And worst of all, Bill can never 
do a good deed, a really good deed, without hav- 



1 9 4 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

ing that ugly old story also told while the good 
deed is mentioned. 

Sue Smith is shunned and talked about because 
she wants to go to college though she comes 
from that poor farm hand's family in the little 
tenant house. " The upstart ! thinks herself bet- 
ter than other folks ! " The village declares it 
would be better for her to learn how to wash 
and iron well, which by the way she can do, and 
the village heard from some one, they can't say 
who said it and they would not swear to it, that 
Sue does not like washing over much. Of course 
no one else of the gossiping women likes it over 
much but that is against Sue, not against them. 

So the country district judges its neighbors 
with petty unfairness. It may not be they con- 
demn people for being poor, for they cannot in 
self-defense set up such a standard. Nor for 
lack of college diploma for the same reason, nor 
of title or distinguished family. The city dis- 
tinctions are impossible at the cross-roads. But 
the village and town have others at hand just as 
unreasonable. And often, just as in the city, 
people are criticized for the things in which they 
have done better than others, and condemned for 
having higher aspirations than the critics have. 

Some country towns have a local humorist or 
buffoon, who can turn to ridicule the deeper and 
finer things of his more prosperous and abler 
neighbors. The whole town is now retailing his 
cruel thrusts and is convulsed with laughter over 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUS T BE SPREAD. 1 9 3 

the funny thing about so and so. Who would 
expose anything precious he could conceal in 
that place to such rude and unappreciative be- 
holders? So the people of the little town seldom 
come to know the best of their neighbor's spirit 
and character. They know not too much but too 
little of each other. 

Here is the opportunity of the Christian pastor 
and his good people. They must create the new 
atmosphere in which the delicate plants of beau- 
tiful traits of character can grow. They must 
think on the things that are noble and true and 
exalted, and compel respect for these things. 
They must protect the modest young girl who 
reaches for higher things from the cruel malice 
and envy of others, and the splendid young boy 
from the reiteration of the sins or supposed sins 
of a great-grandfather's unfortunate life. 

Remember further that the little village of the 
old type has no large interests like those of the 
city, nor the great movements of the wide world 
to discuss. Everything is small there and in- 
tensely personal in its aspects. So the gossip is 
wholly about individuals and the petty circum- 
stances of such quiet lives. Such things must 
be magnified and grossly exaggerated to be 
worth talking about even there, and thus the 
habit of adding much that is pure imagination 
and much that is wholly rumor grows apace, 
and mountains are made of mole-hills in this 
cruel and crushing analysis of motives, words 



196 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



and actions of their neighbors, of whom often, as 
we have seen, really very little is known. Worse 
still, if instead of a sort of friendly interest there 
is felt toward the persons a jealousy, or envy, 
or resentment of some fancied or real wrong. 

The new era of good roads, electric cars, tele- 
phone, and daily city newspaper is working a 
revolution in the town and cross-roads, and its 
first change is to furnish great topics for conver- 
sation. The small affairs of the next neighbor 
sink out of sight and the villagers are discussing 
the vast transformation of China, the earthquake 
in Sicily, and the great reforms of America. 
This new era leaves the old social freedom undis- 
turbed but infuses new ideals. It will develop 
the fellowship of noble purposes and higher as- 
pirations in country places. 

Even before the new era arrives a few Chris- 
tian families may accomplish a social uplift. 
This requires a common purpose to do so in 
these families and a resolute campaign. It will 
be a matter of setting a noble example of true 
neighborliness, of kindly, sympathetic, confiden- 
tial friendships and frowning upon gossip. A 
strict line drawn around the privacy of homes 
and a cultured courtesy in speaking of each other. 
It will set a standard of Christian social life, and 
setting the standard of social intercourse is al- 
ways the initiative of the better life. There will 
often be necessary the courteous silence when 
small affairs of personal life are gossiped, or the 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 1 9 7 

early withdrawal from the group. A wise word 
from the Scriptures is most effective, " Judge not 
that ye be not judged." 

But chiefly it will consist in the creation of an 
atmosphere in which the gentler and wiser dis- 
cussions can flourish. The happy homes of the 
Christian families, their large hospitality to each 
other and to friends, and their own Christlike 
spirit will make the atmosphere. And thus by 
example, standard, and atmosphere the day of 
petty things will end and the world come into the 
horizon of the cross-roads. 

The examples, even a few of them, of girls 
beautifully modest in relation to young men, 
forbidding the rude freedom of kisses by fine 
dignity, and the small love talk will impress the 
giddy set. One such splendid young woman has 
influenced a whole village. And a few young 
men, pure in thought and word, chivalric in cour- 
tesy to all women, yet genial and social, will turn 
the tide to genuine refinement. 

These Christian people should cultivate the 
godly grace of hospitality. There is serious loss 
to city Christian life in the virtual abandonment 
of any general hospitality in the Churches. We 
need not here show how much may yet be done 
to revive it in the city, but in the country the 
perplexing difficulties of city homes in regard to 
entertaining friends at meals or for the night do 
not exist. And there is a fellowship around a 
table which is unique. It seems divinely or- 



i g 8 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

dained that eating together opens hearts and 
promotes deep friendships. 

Confidential friendships are the most heavenly 
enjoyment on earth and the best one soul can 
give another. If it becomes a fellowship of part- 
nership in every good work it will be closest of 
all union of heart. For even in relation to God 
there is a closer fellowship than that of sonship 
with him. It is when the Christian enters upon 
the work of God in co-operation with him, for 
partnership with God is more wonderful still. 

With such social life in the country, " John " 
will not " Quit the Farm " at all. It is James 
Whitcomb Riley's sweet poem that tells of John's 
return in colloquial: — 

" And so I turnt and looked around, some one riz up and 
leant 

And put his arms round Mother's neck, and laughed in low 
content. 

' It's me,' he says, ' your fool-boy John, come back to shake 
your hand ; 

Set down with you, and talk with you, and make you under- 
stand 

How dearer yet than all the world is this old home that we 

Will spend Thanksgivin in fer life — jest Mother, you and 
me!'" 

There are the sweet kinships of large family 
life, the life-long friendships, and the only real 
home life in the world. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT. 



A signal advance in Christian civilization such 
as makes Christian principles more largely to 
control in life, is being accomplished by Village 
Improvement Associations. It is a popular move- 
ment almost everywhere in villages and small 
towns, and its lines of good work radiate in many 
directions. 

This association devotes itself to the physical 
improvement of the place, but this leads to much 
that is related to character and even to Christian 
life, as practical experience has demonstrated. 

I. The beautifying of homes and their sur- 
roundings. In many a cross-roads village the 
houses are unsightly and unpainted, dilapidated 
buildings and sheds abound, and a general ap- 
pearance of shabbiness and neglect everywhere. 
The first suggestion of the association is to paint 
the houses as soon as possible, remove the rub- 
bish, and clean up generally. It surprises every- 
body what a change can be effected with small 
199 



200 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

expense. The doors and the windows are made 
more attractive and the approaches to the house 
cleaned and repaired. 

Then the surroundings of homes are taken in 
hand. Trees are planted in artistic order, old 
trees trimmed, or straightened. Flowers are 
studied and finer modern plants are substituted 
for the scrawny, half-wild, and rude " posies " 
of the grandmothers so amusing to visitors. 
Flower beds are planned for fine effects. Some 
village homes have the possibility of a fine lawn 
and this is graded, walks arranged to be artistic, 
and general landscape effects are considered. 
Old fences are removed entirely where possible, 
cattle and stock not permitted to roam, and new 
fences erected when needed, or the old repaired 
and repainted. The association has often in a 
few years produced a transformation of the place 
in which every one becomes enthusiastically in- 
terested, and the few aged or poor people un- 
able of themselves to keep pace with the rest 
are kindly assisted by association funds. It is 
important manifestly to secure the membership 
of every one who can possibly be persuaded to 
join, at the start. Then in the association meet- 
ings all suggestions can be discussed and com- 
fortably adopted, and no criticism of particular 
houses be necessary. 

2. Then comes the removal of unsightly and 
unpleasant things of a larger character, such as 
tumble-down sheds, which may be seen in many 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 2 oi 

a country place, lingering for years probably un- 
used. The owner is often a non-resident and 
no one concerns himself about it. The associa- 
tion gets it removed. And there is an ancient 
rubbish heap near the old road. Everybody 
dumped upon it for years, but now the old tin 
cans, the dirty heaps of paper cannot be endured. 
The owner of the ground is appealed to courte- 
ously and he clears it away or is assisted by the 
association. Tottering fences all along the high- 
ways seem to get a new life and begin to 
straighten to the new dignity and beauty that has 
come over the town. The rotting old tree with 
one branch split into the trunk, unsymmetrical 
and dead, must come down. In many particulars 
the man-made town gets into harmony with God- 
made Nature and both look more attractive to 
all eyes. Especially upon young and impressible 
minds are these changes helpful. A new love of 
home and self-respect of immense value is pro- 
moted. 

3. General esthetic culture comes rapidly with 
these improvements. The love of beauty is 
clearly related to the good, though it can never 
be a substitute for it. But there is the beauty of 
holiness, the higher attraction the good will pos- 
sess when it is clothed in its glorious appropriate- 
ness. So the village will soon seek for pictures 
and homes beautified without will develop new 
attractiveness within. The association now gives 
art lectures occasionally and may plan an " Art 



202 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Week " with borrowed pictures from the best 
homes, possibly interesting some city art dealer 
to exhibit a few moderately priced good pieces 
and pictures. The slumbering genius of some 
village Raphael or Murillo is awakened and a 
new era is steadily coming to young and old that 
makes life immensely more interesting and worth 
while. 

Very often a village singing-school follows, 
which grows into a choral society and a band of 
instrumentalists. The singing-school may be 
made a very valuable adjunct to general culture. 
It will be a social gathering of the better sort. 
It will require tactful government to prevent re- 
lapse into rude, old-time manners, but real re- 
finement is also contagious and the association 
leaders can create the " atmosphere." In Eng- 
land there are rural sections which have sur- 
prising results from village choral societies. 
Classic productions are rendered by them credit- 
ably, and great oratorios like " Elijah," and " The 
Messiah " are annually produced. The wonder- 
ful work in music of the Welsh towns and vil- 
lages is also well known, and much of this is 
being reproduced by Welsh communities now in 
America in the coal regions. Can a thoughtful 
man conceive the new life the village will ac- 
quire under the stimulus of such a choral society ? 
And the new worship possible in the churches, 
the entertainments, the social delights, and the 
character building of it all? 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 203 

Young people will be brought together under 
good auspices in the singing-school. Many 
happy marriages will result from it, not the least 
of its benefits. For it is one of the serious prob- 
lems of modern society, which sociologists have 
scarcely begun to study, how to bring young 
men and young women together in a place free 
enough to admit of thorough acquaintance and 
refined enough to promote the noblest mutual 
respect, so that wise choice of husband or wife 
may be possible with adequate knowledge of 
each other's temperament, character, and abili- 
ties. The study of the divorce evil is imperative, 
but if more really sensible attention were given 
to the beginnings of planning for marriages, 
there would be little need of agonizing discus- 
sions of divorce. We are almost wholly blind to 
the duty of providing these good beginnings and 
of instructing young people upon marriage re- 
sponsibilities. Prevention here is far better than 
cure. 

4. The preservation of historic spots and 
relics is a splendid work for the association. Al- 
most every village has some " history " of value, 
some of them are allowing famous relics or su- 
premely important events to be unnoted and un- 
marked. It is a great day for all the country 
round when the little monument or artistic 
marker of the momentous event is dedicated. 
Every such opportunity is a prize for village 
improvement. 



204 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Sometimes the spot is simply a relic of some 
prominent early citizen of the village, not con- 
nected with any matter of general importance. 
Or it may be a building of some significance in 
local history. But it should be earnestly worked 
up. An old citizen of fine character is a valuable 
asset and deserves special honor. The village is 
elevating itself when it pays tribute to its best 
men and women. 

5. The approaches to a town may be greatly 
improved by the association. One town con- 
structed solid roads three miles in every direc- 
tion beyond . its borders.* It was an excellent 
business proposition, for it has drawn farmer 
buyers to the town permanently. Such a road 
between two towns might be built by them 
jointly. These towns would develop improve- 
ments rapidly. 

So railroad accommodations may be made bet- 
ted by united effort. There are towns that have 
missed their chance forever by refusing conces- 
sions of a very reasonable character when a new 
railroad route was being planned. Some narrow- 
minded citizen made exorbitant demands for 
right-of-way needed, and frequently several citi- 
zens thus block the way. A little reasoning with 
these men by fellow citizens in most cases would 
have secured the compromise and brought the 
railroad to their doors. But no such effort was 
made, and now the unfortunate village stands 

* Federalsburg, Maryland. 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 205 

miles away from the stream of business the rail- 
road has brought. And all the blessings of 
Christian civilization the railroad has come to 
signify are lost to that place. Its best young 
men go to railroad towns, and its churches, 
business and home life dwindle year after year. 
So with telegraph and telephone facilities for 
a town. A few hours' travel from a great Ameri- 
can city brings one to where the telegraph and 
telephone are twenty miles away. The boat that 
landed us has gone and a sense of indescribable 
isolation from loved ones and other-world con- 
sciousness creeps over the soul. We are accus- 
tomed to city life for years, with a 'phone on the 
desk at hand, a telegraph messenger boy on 
call, six mail deliveries a day, and how strangely 
distressing is this two-day loneliness with no let- 
ter, not a word from home, not a daily paper 
known, and twenty miles drive through sandy 
roads, the horse making four miles an hour to 
connect with real life ! The effect on the visitor 
there is paralyzing, the paralysis of his fellow- 
ship with the world and with his loved ones. It 
is not paralyzing to the local inhabitants, for they 
are already dead to such broader life ; not a daily 
paper ever comes to that place, nor a good 
weekly, and I could not find the monthly mag- 
azine, almost everywhere else crowding the 
world. The people have little to do for several 
months, they sleep most of the day, some of them 



2o6 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

late through the morning and all of them early 
at night. There are few books in the place. 

Think of the transformation of a village like 
that by a daily mail bringing daily newspapers 
widely read; by the telephone, telling of every 
happening an hour afterward; by telegraph and 
electric railways. Think of the moral effects, 
the character influences, the larger religious pos- 
sibilities when this unconnected sleeping town is 
brought into the circle of Christian civilization 
by the helping hands of steel and electricity. It 
is a Christly act of the village association to 
reach out the steel hands and clasp them home, 
just as it is unquestionably Divine Providence 
which brought these forces of civilization. 

6. The Village Improvement Association will 
wisely foster business pride. The results of 
arousing local merchants and professional men are 
far-reaching in one town of many we might name. 
Every store is made more attractive, some of the 
newer ones have fine show windows that ap- 
proach the taste and beauty of city shops. There 
is friendly competition to exhibit the finest dis- 
play of goods, which in turn is rewarded by pur- 
chasers from other towns and for miles around. 
This increase of income leads to a fine bank, one 
of the sights shown with real pride to a visitor. 
The cashier assures the visitor the village bank 
pays. The churches show the prosperity of the 
town in a material beautifying and enlargement, 
and here too is the benefit of the approaches to 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 2 of 

the town strongly seen. So closely do the good 
things of life hang together. The little town has 
become a Garden of Eden in physical attractive- 
ness, and in its people a refined and sympathetic 
Christian character is developed. 

There is surely no environment on earth so 
adapted to produce noble character as the town 
morally governed by the Improvement Associa- 
tion. So far as environment can modify or pro- 
duce character the best elements are there. And 
there the springs of good character are peren- 
nially fresh and life-giving. The good father 
and mother, the happy home, the excellent 
school, the quiet for meditation, the deep sweet 
friendship, all are there. The influence of Na- 
ture in beautiful form, the church has its best 
opportunity, and no village improvement will 
overshadow the church spire nor any bells ring 
so sweetly as hers in the ears of young and old. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE VILLAGE LITERARY SOCIETY. 

"The average American/' says a humorist, 
" loves a public debate as he does a dog fight. 
He bets in his own mind on one of the combat- 
ants, and sic, sics him on to win regardless of 
the merits of the question. It is not a place to 
secure a good decision of an important matter." 
A very able preacher on doctrinal questions per- 
sistently refused to accept a challenge to a pub- 
lic discussion for the same reason that the 
atmosphere was unfavorable to best results. Un- 
questionably the personal influence of the de- 
baters has large weight difficult to separate in a 
judicial settlement of the issue, but so is the per- 
sonal equation large in his one-sided pulpit 
utterances, and in all human thinking and speak- 
ing. And it is well known that the gravest 
issues involving property and life are determined 
in our courts after the most impassioned debate 
between advocates on each side. 

The astronomer has learned scientifically to 
208 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD. 209 

determine the personal factor in observations of 
the stars, and actually has on record the fraction 
of time marking the " personal equation " of all 
prominent observers. He knows how to elimi- 
nate it from the result and to make that almost 
perfect. And practically the thoughtful hearer 
knows the peculiar bias or temperament of a 
speaker he has heard a few times, and he also 
either consciously or unconsciously allows for 
that. The intense feelings aroused by the debate 
make for greater mental activity and compensate 
for the partisan attitudes taken. 

The Village Literary Society, however, which 
has been so useful in many places, has far more 
to commend it than its success in finally settling 
profound questions before it. For one good 
thing, the agitation of these questions by sound 
arguments, or arguments. of mere sound either, 
starts tninking in all who participate and it is 
thinking which blesses when on great questions. 

The organization of the literary society, whose 
work impressed itself on the village, was very 
simple. It was effected by representative citi- 
zens, members of different Churches and out- 
siders, and the usual officers were elected who 
formed the executive to arrange programs, 
secure speakers, and manage the meetings. 
Meetings in one case were held weekly and in 
another bi-weekly on Saturday nights. The 
places, the school building and a public hall, were 
thought more suitable for free debate than a 



2io RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

church, though nothing actually occurred which 
the people would have considered improper in 
a church. The interest and attendance took in 
the entire village concerned and grew steadily 
to large crowds. Being held on Saturday eve- 
nings it did not interfere with any series of 
religious meetings and was not interrupted by 
them. 

The advantages were immediate. The topics 
ran at once into ethical questions and the pastors, 
school teachers, and physicians were usually the 
leading talkers. But both villages had intelli- 
gent business men who participated, and some 
farmers. Young people found it a good social 
meeting-place and were started vigorously to 
think on great questions of better living. There 
was not the pride of personal opinion nor the 
contest to win which had been feared, but in 
most instances an evident sincerity in seeking 
the truth. 

Many literary, industrial, political, and social 
questions were introduced either into debates or 
were referred to some one for investigation. The 
reports on these questions, of course, differed 
greatly in value but none of them were without 
helpfulness. The current of village thought was 
guided into higher channels than personal gos- 
sip and this showed itself in many significant 
ways. The churches felt the deeper thoughtful- 
ness in their services. 

The referred question on several occasions 



CHRIS TIA N PRINCIPLES MUS T BE SPREA D. 2 1 1 

was of extraordinary interest. When it was 
given to some one specially informed, as in the 
case of a medico-ethical subject to an able Chris- 
tian physician, the paper resulting was of un- 
usual value. And the possibilities of such helpful 
investigation for the general public grew in the 
course of the season. 

The society furnished opportunity for enter- 
tainments of the better sort and for an instruc- 
tive popular lecture under auspices that insured 
an audience. It gave the village, also, a ready 
forum for current local agitation of needed im- 
provements and reform of abuses. The weight 
of public opinion was brought directly to bear 
upon the good or the evil concerned. For this 
alone it was well worth maintaining. 

The educational and moral reform possibilities 
of the Literary Society were a matter of frequent 
consideration by the leaders, and it was the gen- 
eral conviction that no more beneficial movement 
could be developed than the regular meetings for 
discussion. 

Such a society can be made a valuable adjunct 
to the Village Improvement Association and 
might be allied with that movement, though if 
good officers could be secured for a separate 
organization it would be better to have each as- 
sociation devote its energies to its own work. 
Many citizens would naturally belong to both. 
The leaders of each would become specialists 
for their own movement. 



212 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

What questions could be helpful to the 
society? We suggest a few as illustrations of 
what may be thought profitable : 

1. Living and just wages are such that the 
father himself can support the family. 

2. Honest work alone has the right to full 
wages. 

3. Workingmen's unions are beneficial. 

4. Marriages for money or titles are sinful. 

5. Parents should have more to do with their 
children's choice in marriage. 

6. Children have certain inalienable rights. 

7. Every voter should be fined for not voting. 

8. The State should provide some educational 
advantages to adults. 

9. Necessity is never an excuse for sin. 

10. Gluttony is as sinful as drunkenness. 

11. Tempting others to sin is the worst of 
sins. 

12. How far is Socialism really Christian? 

In two villages in which the writer actually 
organized these literary societies and actively 
participated, it was plain to every one that far 
more than intellectual benefit accrued. Socially 
there was a vast improvement, for the meetings 
had become a social center, and the people came 
to know their neighbors more than superficially. 
Many a young man surprised his friends by his 
able thinking and in the finer traits of character 
he manifested in one way or another. 

Moral reforms received a new hospitality in 



CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES MUST BE SPREAD, 213 

many minds and hearts. The whole town was 
stirred by some of the debates, and for the chil- 
dren and young people it was plainly an educa- 
tion in morals that neither the church, nor the 
home, nor school was furnishing there. There 
is no exercise of conscience, except in noble ac- 
tion, so helpful as in discriminating the factors 
of a moral question and earnestly discussing it. 
There was genuine character building in these 
meetings. 

As one of the outside movements for propa- 
gating Christian principles in rural districts it 
ranks next to the church. The mission of 
spreading the light, extending the influence of 
Christian ideals, and for arousing enthusiasm for 
their realization is given to good men, as citizens 
outside of the church and we have now set forth 
the various ways in which this can be effectively 
done in country places. 

Fortunately, we are not now merely in the 
realm of theories, important as theories always 
are in further progress. We have notable in- 
stances of a typical character where all the plans 
have been more or less fully worked out and suc- 
cessful. All over America there is a rise of 
Christian citizenship which is alert to exercise 
its rights and opportunities for Christian civiliza- 
tion. It has developed little centers of power 
which show possibilities for all other country 
places. 

This outside light and overspreading influence 



214 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

of Christianity in the world is not in rivalry with 
the church but is a complement to her work, the 
ether hemisphere of the full gospel propaganda. 
It must be fostered by the church in her teach- 
ing and she must actively train workers to do 
this bringing of the Kingdom of Christ into all 
human activity. 

The church, however, has her specific mission 
in the consummation of the Kingdom and this 
we now proceed to investigate, but always con- 
fined to our problem of the rural Christendom. 



SECTION III. 

THE CHURCH FOR THE KING- 
DOM OF CHRIST IN RURAL 
CHRISTIANIZING. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE PLACE AND POWER OF THE LOCAL CHURCH. 

The local church is both the beginning and 
the finishing workshop of Christianity. It is the 
point of contact with the individual soul, the 
place where the actual evangelizing, teaching, re- 
generating, and training of men must be done. 
It is the source of supplies for all of Christ's 
work, whether of men, money, or spiritual 
power. It should surely be the strongest and 
most effective of the wheel within wheels of 
organized Christianity. 

But at present it is the general denominational 
organization that has modern life and spirit and 
not these local churches. The benevolent socie- 
ties and boards of the church are finely con- 
stituted, aggressive, and resourceful; the educa- 
tional general movements are admirable; the su- 
pervision by assemblies, conferences, synods and 
other bodies is thorough and inspiring. Yet all 
these general church movements are in crises 
of sadly inadequate contributions of money. 
217 



2i8 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Missions at home and abroad, larger beneficences 
of all kinds are halted. Appeals are made to 
pastors desperately but the pastor seems to be 
unable to advance the offerings except so slowly 
as to seriously retard all the work. Where is the 
crisis? It is plainly in the local church which is 
the unit of all power for the coming of Christ's 
kingdom. At a time when America is enor- 
mously wealthy and prosperity is overwhelming 
the nation, a really small proportion of the an- 
nual increase, which is crowding Christian hands 
to hold, cannot be gotten for the world-wide and 
nation-wide movements of the church ! A few 
drops from the cup which God is making to run 
over would satisfy missions and all other work 
of a general character at its present stages. But 
these drops are not dropping. 

Because in city, town, and country place the 
local church is now largely an unworked asset 
of Christendom. Its financial possibilities are 
barely touched, its important function of dis- 
covering able workers and training them is very 
feebly exercised, its local influence and immedi- 
ate results in conversions are pitiably unde- 
veloped and meager. It is not that the local 
church has failed. The condition is that of an 
unworked and undeveloped field of abundant 
resources. 

Pastors all over the country in more than 
thirty states of the Union give me the follow- 
ing general figures, or that part of them which 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 219 

official year books do not cover. They exhibit 
this unworked and inactive local church, not so 
discouraging as it ought to be stirring to con- 
sider adequate measures at once for sending new- 
wires into every part of it to thrill into life and 
splendid response all these idle resources to be 
reached and used for the Kingdom of Christ. 
Whenever even a beginning in a modern busi- 
ness spirit and thoroughness has been made in 
some local church the results are surprising. It 
is truly an unworked field in large part but it is 
exceedingly rich. Where are the undeveloped 
parts ? 

1. One-half of the members of the great ma- 
jority of churches have no church-going habit. 
They attend services very seldom. One-half of 
Christ's army are in their tents while the battle 
is going on. A large and regular attendance is 
necessary to unity, power, progress. All the 
church buildings in America are probably not 
large enough to hold at one time all the members 
of these churches. They could be brought out 
by earnest organization and work. Who can 
measure the new power? 

2. Two-thirds of the church members con- 
tribute very little to the income. About one- 
third give three-fourths to four-fifths of all the 
church receives; another third give something 
but not proportionately or systematically; the 
last third throw an occasional dime or nickel on 
the collection plate. These two-thirds can be 



220 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

reached by a Christian business system. It has 
been done in some local churches. Their giv- 
ing would overflow every treasury of the local 
and general church. The crisis in Foreign Mis- 
sions, in Home Missions, and all larger work is 
here at the unorganized giving of the local 
church. 

3. Three-fourths of the church do not go to 
any service between Sundays. Hence many 
churches in large towns or villages have only 
one poorly-attended and dreary week-night meet- 
ing. But the mid-week service is truly the ther- 
mometer of the church spiritually. A pastor in 
England had fifteen hundred men at his prayer- 
meeting.* It can be done here when the condi- 
tions are studied and met. Who can measure 
what the whole church in America at weekly 
meetings on one or two nights, would mean for 
evangelizing power? What a great unplowed, 
unworked field, to make our religion an every- 
day life and not merely a Sunday exercise. 

4. Five-sixths have little or no interest in gen- 
eral church work or in missions. They take no 
church paper, attend no conventions or other 
gatherings, give a little money only under special 
pressure and often under strong appeals to vari- 
ous motives. There is money enough in that 
vast unworked field to flood every general 

* Statement of Rev. Dr. Aked of New York. Rev. Dr. L. 
A. Banks, now of Denver, has long been famous for develop- 
ing prayer-meetings as large as this mentioned. 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 2 2I 

treasury to running over, and then to multiply 
many fold all the forces on the field. It can be 
reached by the methods every business man 
would know how to start and perfect. 

5. Nine-tenths of the members in the average 
church (there are notable exceptions), do no 
work for Christ either in teaching, public prayer, 
administrative or benevolent work, or any other 
work that means real service. What an army 
has been enlisted but has been given no guns, 
not stationed at any post! The inertia of this 
vast mass can be broken up, as many instances 
show, and practically every member set to work 
at what he or she can do for Christ. 

6. Ninety-five out of a hundred in the church 
never led a soul to Christ nor have they ever done 
any personal work of a soul-winning character. 
What if only one-fourth of all the members can 
be trained for such personal evangelism? The 
world would shake with a spiritual earthquake. 

The local church is a mine of unworked treas- 
ures. And the condition is worst in all these 
particulars in the country church and in the vil- 
lage. It is better than the average in the small 
city up to one hundred thousand population where 
the best developed churches exist to-day but 
even there in many cases, the distressing figures 
now given will not have to be changed radically. 

The next great movement of Christendom, 
therefore, will be the development of the local 
church. Of necessity, for there is the crisis of 



22 2 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Christian progress. If a general movement for 
organizing in a modern way the whole local 
church can be started and given the enthusiasm 
of the present Sunday-school movement it can 
be done ; if the whole can have the fire and power 
which that part, the Christian Endeavor, the 
Baptist Young People's Union, and the Epworth 
League first had, it will be done. The modern 
organizing spirit and practical methods which 
have made Christian civilization will at last, for 
the church itself is always last in practical good 
sense, get into the church, and she who has 
really accomplished wonders of accessions to dis- 
cipleship and influence with a small fraction at 
work will sweep the world when all her re- 
sources are engaged. 

This is supremely important in our rural 
Christendom where the undeveloped condition is 
sorest and yet where so large a majority of the 
whole church lives. Though the church there 
is first as the social center and most prominent 
of buildings it is closed all the week except for 
a few hours. It touches usually only the 
spiritual side of man's nature and that partially 
and unsystematically. It lacks the push of busi- 
ness and the interest of all other intellectual 
activities, though it deals with the profoundest 
problems of man's life from the most fascinating 
book in the world. 

The rural church is not dead but unawakened ; 
not exhausted but unworked; not crowded with 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 2 23 

workers pushing each other out of places, as in 
the industrial world, but a factory whose wheels 
have hardly begun to turn and whose work 
benches invite all men to come and be busy in the 
broadest and most varied service to mankind. 

Shall we now get for ourselves the vision of 
the powerful local church? The vision which 
Christ saw in the constitution and charter he gave 
to his church is the most practical to-day. 
Surely it is easier to work the church according 
to his plans with his power than on any lower 
plane. Steadily let us advance from the good to 
the better and to the ideal in Christ. The good 
is not sufficient when the better is possible for 
" the good may be the enemy of the best." 

" Good, better, best, 
Never let it rest 
Till your good is better 
And your better, best ! " 

Let us get a national view of the local churches 
of America, to see them in rural districts'. 

First, the entire number in cities and rural 
places of the principal denominations :* 





Churches, 


Members, 


Baptist, 


15 Denominations, 55,294 


5> 22 4,3°5 


Catholics, 


9 " 12,764 


12,069,275 


Congregationalists, 


5>94i 


699,277 


Disciples, 


"»3°7 


1,285,123 


Jews, 


2 Bodies, 570 


143,000 


Lutherans, 


24 Denominations, 13,169 


2,022,608 


Methodists, 


17 " 61,518 


4,660,784 


Presbyterians, 


12 " 16,478 


1,821,904 


Prot. Episcopal, 


2 " 7,779 


830,659 


Reformed, 


3 " 2 .596 


410,458 


* Statistics for 


1908 by Dr. H. K. Carroll in 


" Christian 


Advocate," N. Y. 







224 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

The total number of all Christian churches is 
210,249 and 33,409,104 members in all. 

The country districts, farming, village, town, 
contain three-fifths of all the population of the 
land and their proportion of churches is even 
greater; it is likely that nearly 150,000 churches 
are scattered in American rural regions. The 
number of members, however, is far smaller 
relatively than in cities. 

We have, therefore, nearly 150,000 country 
churches which may become centers of spiritual 
power and of many streams of helpfulness to all 
the people. There are only 140,519 Sunday- 
schools in America and, as nearly all city 
churches have Sunday-schools, it is certain that 
only one-half of all rural churches in all the 
land maintain a Sunday-school. What a startling 
side-light upon our problem is this single fact! 
The Sunday-school enrolment is only 11,229,953 
or about one-third of the total church member- 
ship. A fair estimate of the rural situation in re- 
gard to the Sunday-school would indicate that 
nearly three-fourths of the church members do 
not go to Sunday-school. 

Before entering upon specific lines of Christ's 
work in the local church, we must look again 
upon Christ's own declaration of the principles 
underlying his work. We discussed them at 
length in the opening chapter of Section II. and 
need here only outline them afresh. 

I. Organization, perfected and extended to the 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 225 

last member, as the medium for immediate and 
fullest expression for the spirit of God. 

2. The willing ones to begin with, the nucleus 
of power and lasting enthusiasm, and the quickest 
way to large results. 

3. Sacrifice for Christ in gratitude for his life 
and death for us. The heroic spirit still in most 
men responds always most largely to it, and it is 
the way to power, joy, and earnestness. Christ, 
no less than the nation, must have soldiers ready 
to give their lives and their all for his service. 
This is no sentiment but a plain practical princi- 
ple as successful to-day as ever in Apostolic 
times. 

4. The call of God felt by leaders and workers. 
Upon these cardinal principles the Primitive 
Church conquered the world in a few centuries 
with supreme difficulties of travel and opposition. 
The Reformation returned to them and swept 
over Europe with spiritual Christianity. The re- 
vivals and missionary expansion of recent years 
came in the same way. 

Here the country church may stand and con- 
quer, whether in sparsely settled farming region, 
in the village, the town, or the suburb, with the 
assurance of charter rights from Christ himself, 
and of his immediate and ever-growing power in 
it. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



TO EVERY CREATURE. 



Christ's Church is commanded to preach his 
gospel to every creature and to teach every one 
all the things he commanded. In another putting 
of it, she is commanded to make disciples of all 
men, to go into the highways and hedges, the 
streets and lanes of the cities and compel them to 
come to him. 

The general church is magnificently assuming 
this responsibility for the whole world. Pastors 
have long led in general movements of their 
denominations as a whole, and now the laymen 
are in similar general organizations. They have 
wonderful visions, " to save the world in this 
generation " — " We can if we will " — " We can 
and we will." Then there is the Young People's 
remarkable Missionary Movement, a federation 
for all the churches. 

But all these are almost wholly great move- 
ments outside of the local churches. The older 
movements, chiefly of pastors, embraced a large 
226 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 227 

number of choice spirits coming together in 
large conventions and organizing general Boards, 
and appealing to the local churches as units or 
to them through their pastors. The laymen's 
association likewise gathers the choice spirits 
here and there but away from their local 
churches, and they organize other denominational 
movements once more appealing to the local 
church as a unit, but they get no farther in reach- 
ing the individuals of that sadly undeveloped 
unit of power. 

These general movements would be mighty 
dynamos of inspiration if the local church could 
be adequately wired. But five-sixths of the local 
church never hear of them, nor feel their thrill 
of a new enthusiasm, nor their awful sense of 
personal responsibility. Until these are reached 
all the general missionary movements expend 
themselves upon a few men in association with 
them who in their local churches already are pay- 
ing most of the contributions, and filling three 
or four important offices each. It will do these 
men great good and will add somewhat to the 
income for missions, though nearly all of these 
leaders have already given generously and 
steadily. 

Meanwhile the supply of men for the min- 
istry is becoming a serious problem in many 
churches, and volunteers for missions are not of 
the sort needed. One Board examined scores of 
applicants and was able to accept less than half 



228 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

a dozen. Another examined fifty and took only 
two. 

The local church, every local church in city 
and country, now stands in the way and must be 
dealt with in the light of all modern intelligence 
for organizing and developing latent energies. 
Here is where Christ's chariot of triumph has 
stopped. 

I. The local church must be made to feel its 
mission to preach the gospel to every creature. 
Every member of it has laid upon him by Christ 
his. share of world-wide evangelization, it ^s his 
personal duty, and it is the duty of the pastor 
and the church to bring it home to him. The 
local church must stand for the salvation of the 
whole world first of all, and have that laid upon 
the conscience of every member sincerely, un- 
flinchingly for Christ's sake. You will say, prac- 
tically in the country church this simply means 
that we appeal again to the pastors as we have 
so often done. No! it means that by every 
means the pastor must understand that a new 
gospel, the old gospel so long unpreached, of 
fearful individual responsibility for the world's 
salvation must ring in the local church. 
Preached until every man is reached and in line. 
It means that we can assure pastors from nota- 
ble cases that such a gospel will be responded to 
and divinely blessed. That if the pastor begins 
with the nucleus of willing ones and persistently 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 2 29 

reaches out he will have enlisted the whole 
church. 

Beginning with the willing ones as a center 
of power is the secret of successful church organ- 
ization. Never to be discouraged at the small- 
ness of beginnings, but to call for those whose 
hearts God has touched and who gladly re- 
spond, intensify their earnestness until it flames, 
plan most aggressive personal work through 
them, persevere in it as all business men know 
how to do, and the local church can be worked 
over in a year or two into a live and eager mis- 
sionary body. 

This was Christ's method in his personal 
ministry in the selection of workers. He would 
not have followers who came for loaves and 
fishes, he wanted none who came because the 
crowd was with him, for he melted that crowd 
away by his words, hard for them to accept, and 
he tested the love and willingness of his fol- 
lowers in many ways. The call for those who 
come gladly and with willing heart is always 
responded to, as I have seen, wherever it is tried. 
Often by more people than would come if 
scolded to come or importuned on personal 
grounds or sterner motives. Fear is effectual 
sometimes in exhorting men to avoid sin, but it 
is unwise to appeal to in urging them into God's 
•service. There is a joy in enlisting willingly 
which itself is an element of power, and it is a 
repudiation of all we have said about the higher 



230 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



enthusiasm and joy of the Christian life if in the 
presence of sinners we are obliged to beg and 
beseech and threaten Christian people to do some 
work for Christ. 

It is still more shameful if we are compelled 
to beg for money to support world-wide mis- 
sions. The character of the pleas for foreign 
missions from our pulpits which desperately be- 
seech the people not to give less than last year 
for the reputation of the church, or which urge 
attendance upon some foolish entertainment to 
swell the missionary funds, is enough to disgust 
a thoughtful attendant who is trying to discover 
in the church whether love to God is real or 
whether those particular Christians are shams. 

This does not occur where the town church 
pursues mission study courses with abundance 
of informing literature, charts, maps, and led by a 
pastor whose heart burns for the world's salva- 
tion. Where the Sunday-school has mission 
studies regularly, and where auxiliaries of For- 
eign and Home societies are in operation. Where 
the Young People's society has its earnest mis- 
sionary committee at work and is pushing regular 
offerings from all the members. 

It requires very much agitation and educa- 
tion on Missions to reach every one of even a 
few hundred members. It will only be accom- 
plished when proportionate and systematic giv- 
ing is the rule in the church. But even in the 
village and country church a large missionary 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 23 1 

interest and enthusiasm has been created and 
maintained. And it is not necessary to resort 
to petty schemes for it nor to appeal to un- 
worthy motives. 

It is never necessary to do it in a church 
which possesses any spiritual life at all for the 
Lord's little company are still there and they will 
respond to him when his call is given joyously 
and in faith for really aggressive work for his 
cause. His work if it is to receive his blessing 
must be begun with the willing ones for we have 
no commission from him to invite any others. 

The first work is to reach every creature in 
the church's immediate parish. But for this 
home work there is needed the enthusiasm of the 
world-wide work to which the little church in 
town or village gives money and if possible mis- 
sionaries. The church now faces its duty to 
evangelize every man, woman, and child in all 
the region round it, and it is seriously under- 
taken with adequate plans. Ingathering plans 
are so finely matured and have been so success- 
ful that we offer them to the little band of will- 
ing ones of the local church. 

If that willing band consists of but one worker 
let us see what has been done. In Nevada, Ohio, 
a village of 900 people (864 by the last census), 
Mr. Henry Kinzly, a modest grocer in the place, 
but an earnest Christian, was made superinten- 
dent of the Sunday-school, one of two there. 
He found an enrollment of about sixty scholars, 



232 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



but like a modern business man he studied this 
new business for God, thrust upon him, modest 
as he was and so timid it was almost impossible 
for him to pray in public. He read books and 
pamphlets upon methods of Sunday-school organ- 
ization, attended conventions, day by day 
thought about the school and its possibilities. 
Almost single-handed he began every movement 
like house to house visitation, Adult Bible class 
organization, the Home Department, the Cradle 
Roll, Decision Day, and so on. He has now en- 
rolled, according to report from him just re- 
ceived, seven hundred and fifty, drawing for 
some on the country outside; two hundred and 
twenty-five conversions have occurred in the 
Sunday-school, 550 have signed the temperance 
pledge, the saloons have been driven out of the 
village, a new church building costing $18,000, 
has been erected. The other Sunday-school also 
has prospered and another new church built in 
the village. When he wanted a Home Depart- 
ment no one was ready to begin it, so he him- 
self went from house to house; when he wanted 
new scholars he sought them in the same way. 
Now he has a beehive of joyous and enthusiastic 
helpers. His epigrammatic advice is fine : " If 
any one should ask me for the best methods to 
build up Sunday-schools and advance church 
work, I would say, first, Get rid of saloons; 
second, Then get busy." 

Marburg, Ala., is a village of about four 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



2 33 



hundred people in which Mr. D. H. Marburg, 
has a Sunday-school enrolling 577 people. It is 
so popular that after having enrolled every soul 
in the village, crowds for miles from the country 
round come to it and join it. One old man claim- 
ing to be 114 years old is a member of the 
organized adult class. This school began with 
eighty, two years before, and it was the house to 
house work under the leadership of one man that 
accomplished the result. 

In Tennessee is a rural town of about 2,500 
people with five churches, four of which have 
very active Sunday-schools. In one of them an 
earnest lawyer has gathered a Bible class of men, 
enrolling 275 and having an attendance of 150. 
Men are not impossible to attract to the church 
when the earnest workers go after them. So in 
a larger town, Ashland, Ohio, of about 7,000, 
still below what the United States census au- 
thorities call a city, there is one Sunday-school 
of more than 1,000 in numbers and had 881 pres- 
ent one Sunday. There are now thirty-one Adult 
Bible classes there of large numbers, thoroughly 
organized for mutual help. At the annual 
banquet of men more than 1,000 men dined to- 
gether, and these earnest men voted out the 
saloon in an election with 325 majority. Much 
of this work is from the earnest activity of Mr. 
W. D. Stem, a business man of Ashland. 

In Hagerstown, Maryland, there are more than 
twenty-five organized Adult Bible classes started 



234 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

from one class largely the inspiring work of a 
traveling salesman, as his pastor declares. 

The marvelous work of Mr. Marshall A. Hud- 
son, the founder of the Baraca and Philathea 
organized adult classes, is becoming well known. 
He began in Syracuse, New York, to organize a 
small Bible class of men in 1890. Three hun- 
dred and fifty men have been converted and 
joined the church from the large membership 
of that class. Then Mr. Hudson gave up a 
lucrative business and is devoting himself in 
continent wide travel to gathering men into such 
church work. He is lovingly called, " the man 
who wants a million," a million men saved 
through the Bible study work, and it is no idle 
dream with him for already 2,700 such classes 
are in operation, and of men and women about 
500,000, half his million, are enrolled " to do 
things," " to stand by the Bible and the Bible 
school," and " men to work for men." We could 
multiply such instances to fill a volume. 

How can the work of reaching every indi- 
vidual in the local field be begun and prosecuted? 
In one small town of about two thousand people, 
six churches were struggling for existence. The 
pastors in conference gave the total enrollment 
of all their churches at about 600 and of Sunday- 
schools 650, so it was found that fully fourteen 
hundred people, all English-speaking and Ameri- 
can born, were not reached by any of the 
churches. Such a census clears the way for a 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 235 

detailed visitation undertaken by the churches in 
union, the visitors going two by two to each 
home and ascertaining the religious preference 
of church membership of every person. The 
cards containing this data are then distributed to 
each pastor concerned with the particular ones 
and he has by this means his entire field denned 
for his work. He follows it up with visits to the 
people preferring his church and by various 
means lays siege to win those homes to Christ. 
Every other pastor takes care of his own, and 
thus every soul is included somewhere. 

Then must follow the personal work for every 
individual steadily continued until he is saved. 
How do business men work? One great firm 
dealing in food supplies sent its salesman forty- 
eight times to a retail grocer before he received 
an order and then came a large business ; another, 
a coal dealer, sent twenty-six times to a manu- 
facturer before the first favorable response. 
When we have gone twenty-six times or forty- 
eight times to win a soul then we shall be like 
modern business for money. But doubtless after 
that Christ would say go seventy times seven 
times again. Yet it is not necessary to go often 
to win souls. The experience of personal 
workers is that very many come by the first in- 
vitation and are saved; many others after a few 
visits. It is easier in fact to secure men's ac- 
ceptance of Christ by an earnest worker than it 
is to sell goods to them, or to get them to change 



236 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

their political party, or to invest largely in new 
enterprises.* 

The complete plan for field work by the local 
church is to have a permanent force for the field 
assigned to country districts well defined. They 
visit every home at certain times, keep watch for 
any new family in their district, call upon them 
at once, and bring systematic influences to bear 
upon them to become Christians. One church 
has so wonderful a field organization of this kind 
in a new section of a city that twenty new 
scholars come to its school on an average every 
Sunday. Another increased its school by such a 
force from two hundred to eleven hundred in a 
few years. 

In all this church work there is loving study 
of individuals in the gospel estimate of the value 
of one soul. Planning in all possible ways to 
reach him by this or that person, by this and 
that influence, and by various meetings in which 
he might become interested. How vastly dif- 
ferent is this Christlike concern for individuals 
from the meddlesome prying into his affairs in 
the days of gossip. When the local church be- 
comes fully organized there will be many points 
of contact with individuals. With a Young Peo- 
ple's society, a Brotherhood, a Ladies' Mission 
Band, a Home Department, the Cradle Roll for 
the baby of the family, the organized adult class 

* Personal testimony of many workers in Sunday-school 
Religious Canvasses. 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 237 

which is so popular, some literary society of the 
village or town church, much wise social work, 
and so on, all of which is practicable in the town 
and larger villages, and is in operation in some 
of them. A modern organization of the Sunday- 
school is the most powerful aid to the field 
workers for the local church. 

There are pastors who have organized their 
parish visitation on the field force, making parish 
visits definite in purpose instead of merely social, 
and deeply spiritual in results. A keen business 
man discussing the possibilities of such a plan 
said, " I would give large wages to have such a 
body of solicitors for strictly business purposes." 
He knew very well that the splendid men and 
women voluntarily doing district work could not 
be hired for any money he could afford to pay 
them. The church has their services without 
pay and the church everywhere that is willing to 
persevere in organizing such a work can secure 
such people gladly to undertake it. 

The Boys' Messenger Corps is another field 
force, following up the district workers with dis- 
tribution of church and Sunday-school litera- 
ture, tracts, and church announcements ; they are 
used to carry flowers to the sick ; letters to the 
people, the absentees, and to strangers. Chris- 
tian boys are delighted to do such work, and 
designated by a metal or ribbon badge, they are 
tireless parish workers. 

The spread of church federation for amicable 



238 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

co-operation between local congregations in their 
field comes to us opportunely. There may be 
secured a full understanding of what each 
church is doing, a clear defining of each 
church's field, and no danger of accusations of 
proselyting. And next to obnoxious proselyting 
for loss of souls is the fear of being called a 
proselyter, and thus failing to visit families 
hastily assumed to belong to another church, but 
which in turn are avoided by that pastor for a 
similar fear, and thus they are neglected by all. 
But a primary investigation by all churches of 
the whole town as to religious inclinations and 
the data given to each church covers the whole 
field perfectly. The visitors in the general can- 
vass become the visitors for their respective 
churches for still closer personal spiritual effort. 

Thus the local church will thoroughly cover 
its immediate field reaching every creature 
while having a vision of the whole world field 
and every member a sense of his responsibility 
for both. 

" Be strong! 
We are not here to play — to dream, to drift, 
We have hard work to do and loads to lift, 
Shun not the struggle — face it ! 

It is God's gift." 

M. D. Babcock. 



CHAPTER XX. 

EVERY MEMBER AT WORK WITH ALL 
HIS TALENTS. 

The parable of the talents teaches every man's 
responsibility to God for every one he possesses. 
It is keen knowledge of human nature that de- 
scribes the man with one talent as the person who 
fails to use it. The one talent man, or those who 
think they have only one, are the inactive mem- 
bers of the church. But Jesus did not attempt to 
teach every truth about talents in one parable. 
He met a rich young ruler with probably five 
talents who went away and buried them all. He 
saw a woman in the temple who had the least 
ability in money-giving and yet used it all for 
God. 

Who is to impress upon the individuals their 
duty concerning all the ability they have if the 
church does not? And how can the church ef- 
fectively urge the use of talents when she neg- 
lects to provide the larger opportunities ? Especi- 
ally those which the New Testament church in- 
volves, for it is just as clearly the obligation of 

239 



240 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

the whole church to reach out to the world's 
varied needs as it is for a man to use all his vari- 
ous talents. Professor Hugh Black says : " The 
church is seen to be broader than its common defi- 
nition. Time was when the church organization 
covered all life and was responsible for education, 
for the care of the poor, for all charitable and 
philanthropic work. It was even the dictator 
about all social affairs and customs; it settled 
what you could wear, when to work and play, 
when to go to bed. The time may be again when 
the church shall control life more than ever, when 
the conception is broadened to mean the higher 
social organization of life, the ideal, the universal 
brotherhood. The church no longer educates, 
cares for the poor, nor does philanthropic work. 
But the church should now supply inspiration for 
all social activities." 

So the broader work of the church and the full 
use of her members' varied abilities complement 
each other. Here are men, to become definite, 
who have gifts of teaching, of special sympathy 
to comfort, of ability to clear away intellectual 
difficulties, of evangelistic appeal, of creating 
enthusiasms for hard struggles, of developing 
organization ; gifts of preaching, teaching, admin- 
istration, and leadership, and here is the suffering 
world needing just every one of these lives of 
endeavor. The field for the work is limitless, 
•individual effort undirected and unorganized is 
exceedingly wasteful and ineffective. And indi- 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 241 

vidual effort seldom begins spontaneously but 
chiefly by the inspiration of a powerful associ- 
ation. 

So it becomes a question whether the church 
earnestly exhorting individuals to use their tal- 
ents and all of them, really desires to have it 
done in the only way that ages of experience have 
shown it is practicable. Will the church diversify 
and extend her work so that all her people can 
find full activity in God's service? 

In many country churches a little group of men 
hold all the offices. Not often by their own 
choice or manipulation, but because they are 
recognized as the persons best fitted for the offices 
and the church is doing nothing to train others. 
We know men who occupy three, or four, in a 
few cases, six important official positions in the 
church. There are men who are President of the 
Trustees, Superintendent of the Sunday-school, 
Ruling Elder, President of the Brotherhood, and 
of the choir in a Presbyterian church; one was 
Trustee, Secretary of the Board of Stewards, a 
Sunday-school teacher, President of the Young 
People's Society, leader of the choir, and Secre- 
tary of the Social Union in a Methodist church, 
and might have been President of the Ladies* 
Aid Society, if he had not been a man; another, 
a local preacher, Trustee, class leader, teacher in 
the Sunday-school, President of the Brotherhood, 
and the Ushers' Association. It is very common 
for a capable man in a country church to be 



242 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

forced into three or four offices all of great im- 
portance, and any one of which would take all 
the spare time of a man of other business during 
the day. The man of many such offices is not 
the man of leisure, nor a man who usually can 
command even clerical assistance, but very busy 
men who have only evenings and Sunday to give 
service to the church. 

The inevitable consequence is that they lose, if 
they ever possessed, any w r orthy sense of the op- 
portunity or responsibility of these positions of 
trust and power in Christ's Kingdom. The Sun- 
day-school superintendent who is also Treasurer 
of the Board of Trustees, and therefore bur- 
dened with its financial cares, and leader of the 
choir with all the fusses and vexations of that, 
thinks little or nothing between Sundays of the 
Sunday-school. He comes to the school with no 
definite program for it, nor any study of methods 
and organization, if even he has looked at the 
current lesson. His vision of the Sunday-school 
opportunity is limited to precedents of forty 
years ago and to holding the school at the point 
he received it from his predecessor. 

As Treasurer of the Board of Trustees he 
might become a specialist in church finance and 
in the Christian principles of giving, if he could 
give full attention to that office. He might even 
in the village develop a system of offerings that 
would furnish the church a liberal support. But 
he is pulled right and left now by exigencies in 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



243 



the Sunday-school requiring a new teacher at 
once for a troublesome class, and then by cranki- 
ness in the choir. In the choir he cannot do good 
work because his other offices divide his attention 
and the little spare time he has at command. 
The most he can do is to bear meekly the honors 
of these great opportunities and stand in the way 
of somebody else doing good modern work. 

In all these churches there are many men com- 
ing and going with nothing definite to do. They 
would not immediately grace these offices, or 
seem to grace them, as well as the much-officed 
incumbent. But it would be a blessing to them 
and in a short time to the church to elect them 
and give them training. If they are one-third 
equal to the other man they might possibly man- 
age to fill as well one of the three offices the 
other man holds. They will in many cases de- 
velop abilities surprising themselves and the 
church. And with a division of responsibility 
each man could assume more for each office, 
become somewhat of a specialist, and thus 
strengthen the church where now she is lament- 
ably weak, in the sense of personal opportunity 
and responsibility her officers feel in the import- 
ant places they hold but do not fill. 

One earnest man was elected Sunday-school 
superintendent when he was holding several 
other offices in the church, but he made it the 
condition of his acceptance that he should be re- 
lieved of every other office. He startled his 



244 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

brethren, they in many offices, by saying that in 
his opinion the Sunday-school superintendency 
was so important that he must give all his time 
and attention to it. He was accordingly released 
and has stood ever since in a unique position as 
the Sunday-school superintendent and strongly 
that. In the prayer-meeting he prays and talks 
about the school, when his friends meet him it is 
natural to inquire about it, and in every move- 
ment of the church he stands for the Sunday- 
school with impressiveness. He now attends 
conventions, gives time to the study of methods, 
and is the Sunday-school enthusiast there! 

" One man one office " should be the rule of 
the ordinary church, except in adding merely 
nominal positions. Then study all the individual 
members of the church to measure their abilities. 
Take an intellectual and spiritual inventory of 
resources. And of possibilities also by the train- 
ing the church could give of young people. It 
will surprise the leaders how many there are un- 
employed. It often happens that the man himself 
of real abilities is unaware of them, and some of 
the most successful leaders have come to their 
powers slowly. There is no more practical mes- 
sage to troubled pastors than the word of Christ, 
" Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that 
he would send forth labourers into his harvest." 
Christ himself prayed a whole night before he 
chose the twelve apostles. This prayer to him is 
always answered by pointing out in some way 



THE CHUR CH IN R URAL CHRIS TIANIZING. 2 45 

capable workers, the divinely chosen and sent 
worker he then will become. 

Fundamentally, the greatest work the church 
can do is to discover workers, to train them, and 
to place them. It is better to train ten men to 
do the work the pastor or a few leaders are doing, 
than each to try to spread himself over the places 
of ten men. Yet many pastors are gathering to 
themselves office after office in the little church 
which other people should be trained by him to 
fill. He is asking anxiously, " What can I do for 
the men of my church? what can I do to help 
young men ? " when the men do not want any- 
thing more done for them, as if they were chil- 
dren, but most earnestly want to do something 
for the church. 

The wise pastor will change his work to be 
largely training men for varied service, and plac- 
ing them. He can do twenty times the work for 
Christ in that way and broaden and perpetuate 
the work. 

Magnify the importance of every church office 
until men are afraid lightly to assume it. By the 
literature of Christian methods, now so abundant 
for every position, show the vast opportunities 
for good these places afford. Then with much 
prayer seek for the man or the woman of special 
promise or ability for it. 

Every member of the church should be at 
work and every one using all his talents. The 
church is a force of sowers, tillers, and reapers ; 



246 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

it is an army of soldiers against evil in which 
every man is to be drilled and assigned; all are 
called to be witnesses for Christ and spread the 
invitation to be saved. Dr. Parkhurst says, " I 
have ceased to call this church my field, it is my 
force." This is the only position she can rightly 
hold in the presence of her Lord who has per- 
sonally withdrawn from the earth and put her 
into his place to reach men. She is his body to 
express his feelings toward men, to speak to 
them, and to touch them with healing and saving 
for him. He wants no superfluous members on 
his living body, no paralyzed limbs nor even 
fingers. 

For practical beginning let the earnest pastor 
call a meeting of those desiring to give them- 
selves more fully to Christ's work. Call for those 
who are willing, and accept gladly those whom 
the Spirit moves to come after the earnest appeal, 
and organize them into a Personal Workers' 
Band. No matter though the prominent mem- 
bers have not responded and those who have are 
the least known. If you have joyously in faith 
given Christ's call he has impressed it upon his 
willing ones and you have them. Select a list of 
persons to be prayed for and sought to become 
Christians. Let the Personal Workers' Band in- 
dividually assume the names they will seek. After 
a few days or a week have reports of what they 
have done and the results. Discuss with them 
the successes, failures, difficulties and start on 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



247 



another effort. Let them bring others who desire 
to join as personal workers. 

Keep up this meeting weekly or oftener and 
study the art of Christian conversation, the prin- 
ciples of successful approach to men spiritually, 
and the successes and failures of your band. 
There cannot possibly be a meeting so important 
to continue as this, and none upon which the 
Saviour who died for men will look with such 
blessing and power. It will lead to the largest 
results in any church which could be gotten in 
that church in any way in a year, or a series of 
years. A whole church has been powerfully 
stirred by it in a year. 

The Personal Workers' Band are the company 
of Apostles in the local church. They were, 
with the rest, only disciples, weak and faltering, 
with no confidence in their ability to win men 
to Christ. So were the twelve and the rest of the 
upper room company before the day of the com- 
ing of the Holy Spirit. Then see them ! See 
Peter who trembled before a young maid now 
bold before a whole city, and winning thousands. 
And behold Stephen and Paul and the rest before 
and after they were filled with power by the 
Spirit. One company of such workers brought 
three hundred and fifty to Christ, one man more 
than a hundred, another seventy-five. A young 
man completely helpless in bed by rheumatic 
arthritis which had stiffened every joint, but one 
wrist and a little motion in his neck, was so 



248 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

eager to speak for Christ to his visitors that he 
had many notable cases of conversion in that 
strange sick room. 

This work of winning men to Christ by the per- 
sonal effort of the members of the church is the 
central work of the church. Other lines of help- 
fulness to men belong to the church unquestion- 
ably and must be added. There are certain 
features of the Institutional church practical and 
contributory to spiritual results in many country 
districts. But the church may do every other 
work of the most diversified Institutional organ- 
ization, and if it fails to be chiefly or most largely 
for spiritual results it is not a church of Christ. 
The Institutional has ever drawn men away from 
Christ when the " institutions " were the domi- 
nant features, and the spiritual center was weak. 
There is no better way to guard this peril than 
by the Personal Workers gradually extending 
into the whole church. 

Yet while man is a soul in a body with a mind, 
a heart, beauty-loving eyes, music-loving ears, 
a body subject to disease or capable of splendid 
powers there will be required many lines of work 
fully to save him. Christ found it so in his 
personal ministry, and those who study Christ's 
breadth of work and his methods are moved to 
many-sided church enterprises. These will be 
added as the church like a spiritual body or a 
great tree becomes filled with life and gushes out 
new branches of effort in natural development. 



THE CHUR CH IN R URAL CHRIS TIANIZING. 2 49 

The men who are needed to prosecute these new 
movements are gathered into the church by the 
same spirit. 

One church, notable for having nearly every 
member a worker, presents a card to every per- 
son who joins having nine distinct lines of work 
indicated. The new member may choose one or 
two of the lines of work, and then a regular 
church officer charged with that duty inducts the 
new member into the work he or she has chosen. 

" Impracticable in my church ! " So it may 
be but the burden of proof is upon that pastor 
to show it is impracticable. " How ? " How, 
but by a fair trial. It is the command of the 
Head of the church to reach every creature and 
for every member to work with all his talents. 
There must be the loyal soldier's obedience if he 
dies trying to carry out the command. The Duke 
of Wellington was asked, " Do you think it is 
the duty of the church to push foreign mis- 
sions ? " The grim old veteran said sharply, 
" Look to your orders, sir ! What does Christ 
command ? " It is queer anachronism in the 
church, far behind our bold business and scientific 
times, to say that anything is impossible, or im- 
practicable. The inventor will not say the word. 
The business man never utters it of any new 
enterprise, the physician will not despair before 
any human ailment, the scientist cannot define 
any region of human effort as impossible. Christ 
above all taught us never to say it of anything 



250 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

in which God was called upon to help. Die or 
let the church die in the heroic struggle to do the 
work for which alone Christ organized his 
Church. There is evidence enough that churches 
die for failure thus to obey Christ, but none 
as yet upon which as a church it could be said, 
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. 

In the new era of the country with electric 
cars and the rest this extension of spiritual life 
and energy to every member of the church be- 
comes even more important. Many of the dis- 
couraging difficulties of former times are passing 
even now in farming regions, and still more in 
towns, and in suburbs. There are now rural 
churches where the opportunity for spiritual ex- 
pansion within is greater than in many city 
churches. The prospects are aglow with wonder- 
ful promise. The old men dream dreams as the 
Holy Spirit comes upon them and the young men 
see visions. And what vision of the Church can 
a young man in our day see but that she is at 
work with all modern enterprise, thorough busi- 
ness organization and every member according 
to John Wesley's rule, " Doing all the good he 
can, by all the means he can, in all the ways he 
can, in all the places, at all times, to all the 
people he can. and as long as ever he can." And 
when he has done all this he must say with that 
wonderful worker-poetess, Mrs. Browning, " I 
have not used half the powers God has given 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TO PERFECT EVERY MAN IN ALL HIS NATURE. 

The God of nature, of man's wonderful and 
complex nature, is the head of the Church, the 
Christ. He himself did a very broad work for 
the people of Galilee and Judea in his personal 
minstry and a work of which he declares repeat- 
edly, in many forms of utterance, that he began 
what his believers are to do more largely. One 
typical expression will suffice, surely : " He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do 
also; and greater works than these shall he do; 
because I go unto my Father." 

Among his personal works were the healing of 
the sick, feeding the hungry, giving a great haul 
of fish to a man for the use of his boat, adding 
provisions to a wedding feast, expediting a vessel 
in its voyage across the lake, acting Temple guard 
for its purifying, rescuing a man from drowning, 
enforcing the law respecting swine ; teaching 
ethics, courtesy, and business shrewdness ; and all 
the time chiefly engaged in saving men from sin. 
251 



252 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



His apostles and workers were to do these 
things more largely than was possible to him by 
his limited time and may we not freely add, in 
forms more permanently helpful to men and to 
civilization. For instance, to heal the sick by 
direct miracle is marvelous and then, in more 
cases than now, was the only way it could be 
done. In many cases it is yet the only way if 
God wills they shall be healed. Who can gainsay 
the clear evidence that he does yet so heal many? 
But how much more wonderful is the healing of 
a thousand by the regular scientific ways in our 
time for one by miracle. Who again can ques- 
tion that this is also God's way, for are not 
scientific laws his laws? 

He expedited the voyage by a miracle. We 
do it by steam, by the turbine engine and quad- 
ruple expansion of steam. It is wonderful and 
greater. Let us not bring down the miraculous 
by denying it, but bring up the regular and the 
ordinary to greater results than the miraculous 
ever accomplished. 

What, then, is the scope of church work 
Christ designated for his church? How much 
of this work can be done or is needed to be done 
in country places? 

I. All the churches now recognize many duties 
to their people physically. They are under ob- 
ligation to take tender care of the aged and the 
poor ; to visit and as far as possible help the sick ; 
to cultivate sympathy for the unemployed and 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 253 

the unfortunate in business, and to teach the 
gospel of a pure and sound body. Churches 
in towns and in some suburbs need especially 
to look after the poor, the widow and the orphan, 
and no less the motherless children. Home find- 
ing for the orphan may be done by the local 
church, some ladies' society making it their 
special line of Christlike work. 

Many country churches go farther and feel it 
their duty to influence state and local action on 
the improvement of civic and industrial condi- 
tions, and by federated action with other churches 
and with good people to provide public gymna- 
siums, and to co-operate with the Young Men's 
Christian Associations, and the Young Women's 
Christian Associations, in physical culture. Where 
such opportunities are provided by other agencies 
the church gives inspiration and co-operation. 
But in many places the church is the only body to 
lead in such movements. The gospel on the 
physical nature is the loftiest thought ever enter- 
tained about the human body — that it is the temple 
of the Holy Spirit, and that in it the spirit of 
Jesus is re-incarnated for his continued work to 
save man. 

To secure full control of the body for Christ's 
work is the real philosophy of fasting from food. 
It is a grave wrong to young Christians not 
clearly to teach the blessings of such intermis- 
sion of meals, and temperate eating at all times. 
And this with protracted seasons of communion 



254 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



with God, not on public of general occasions, 
or at set times, but as between every soul and 
God. The true church will also teach this truth 
of Christ that greater spiritual power comes only 
when every whim of appetite and the slightest 
bondage of physical desires is broken. The first 
effort at fasting will seem harmful because it 
makes more insistent all these appetites and dis- 
turbs prayer, but after the body is completely 
under, or in perfect control, meals are omitted 
without consciousness of them and the long con- 
tinued prayer and meditation is realized then in 
all joy and power. 

2. What can the country church do socially? 
She can revive true Christian hospitality by 
teaching its blessed privileges, and by means of 
conventions, Sunday-school Institutes, and other 
Christian gatherings give opportunity for its ex- 
ercise. The pastor will covet for his people the 
close fellowship which such church gatherings 
give with earnest Christian workers. There 
should be clear thinking upon hospitality, not the 
disdainful shrug of fashionable shoulders that it 
is an antiquated thing, or an Oriental custom. 
There is no substitute for it in human society, 
as our sneering wealthy objector himself and her- 
self prove by making large use of it for their 
exclusive set in most expensive, long-drawn-out, 
and frequent dinners. All winter long in large 
cities, there are whirls of suppers, dinners, break- 
fasts (at noon or later) with princely extra va- 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



2 55 



gance. Objections from such quarters to enter- 
taining God's people are curious illustrations of 
straining out gnats and easily swallowing camels. 
It is not to save money for the guests, not that 
they want it, but as a privilege for promoting 
spiritual life that hospitality in connection with 
church meetings holds exalted place. It makes 
personal influence most powerful and brings 
heart to heart most sweetly. 

Still further of the same kind, the Christian 
homes of the well-to-do in the suburb, town, or 
village can occasionally invite groups of church 
workers of the local church to their hospitality 
in connection with the development of their plans 
for the chux-ch. Definite movements for new 
work are thus started by our English cousins at 
" breakfasts," by noble laymen of our country, 
like Mr. W. N. Hartshorn of Boston notably, and 
others, inviting men and women to their homes 
for several days at a time in the interest of some 
Christian enterprise. 

If possible the town or village church should 
keep " open house " every night. A social room 
should be provided, or part of the room set off 
for the purpose, books and magazines on hand for 
those who desire to read, but the freedom of social 
conversation permitted at one end of the room, or 
in another room. Many young people do not 
care to read all the evening and conversation is 
helpful under wise supervision. 

3. For man intellectually the duty of the 



256 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

church has greatly changed with the wonderful 
growth of schools and colleges in every part of 
the land. But there is obligation to the young 
people just from college or high school graduates. 
Their peril upon entering business or a profes- 
sion is to drop all strenuous study and fall into 
slipshod habits of reading and thinking. There 
are churches in our towns, which with fine good 
sense, provide just enough intellectual activity in 
the church to keep these cultured minds on the 
high plane of former college life. In some towns 
the Chautauqua Circle maintains the college spirit 
and thinking, in others a high grade lecture 
course helps, and in still others a local debating 
society. These churches have their reward in 
the able service of such young men. 

Pastors are steadily becoming a more learned 
body of men and do not need to have pointed out 
to them the brainy young men who come to 
church. They do not come for lectures in pre- 
tentious scholarship but to have the sermon up to 
best standards intellectually yet warm in spiritual 
life. The men who are popular with " the fel- 
lows " as preachers are those of deepest spir- 
ituality and simplicity but, of course, of finest in- 
tellectual breadth and grasp. 

4. Esthetically the influence of Jesus on the 
world has been amazing. Famous masters in 
painting and music have been inspired to their 
masterpieces by him. Jesus has brought about 
a sublime era in art and music, and all that realm 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 257 

of the beautiful to which so many now give their 
lives. In America it is plain we are approaching 
our golden age of art. Children in country- 
schools are learning drawing and music, some of 
the young people are attending conservatories 
and art schools. The church must by all means 
to some extent satisfy their love of the beautiful, 
it is the spirit of Jesus to do it, or lose her choice 
young people, and more and more some older 
people of such tastes. 

There is surely no justification for the unsightly 
church building and its shabby surroundings. I 
have seen a piece of wall paper torn and hang- 
ing at loose ends for months in a country church, 
a large patch of the -plastering down in another 
for a long time, shutters broken off and hanging 
by one hinge, a gate that stubbornly stuck in 
the mud half way open ; other churches long 
crying for paint, or for repairing. Old men 
who are trustees may never have had esthetic 
training or environment, and are insensible to 
the disgust and pain some of the children feel in 
attending such churches. And what about edu- 
cated pastors from the larger towns or cities who 
have no eyes for such dishonor of God's house? 
Upon fathers and mothers there, with richer op- 
portunities than the aged trustees, is laid the duty 
of beautifying the church. Very much may be 
done at small expense but no expense is too great 
for the cure of souls, as the doctor would say, no 



258 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

expense is too great for hospitals which are to 
heal bodies. 

In the country how easy and inexpensive will 
be the grading of the church lawn. The planting 
of trees and flowers, the fresh paint outside, the 
tasteful pictures in the Sunday-school room, and 
the general beautifying of the church. Let us be 
sure that everything that would offend the ar- 
tistic sense of the boy or girl is removed, and we 
shall the more teach that there is beauty in holi- 
ness. 

The singing in public worship and in the Sun- 
day-school is receiving more attention in towns 
and villages. We have elsewhere urged the vil- 
lage choral society, but here also the church has 
its great opportunity. There are village churches 
in England with wonderful singing by the con- 
gregation. It is an experience for a lifetime to 
visit them. The teaching of singing in the public 
schools and the larger number everywhere re- 
ceiving private instruction gives many a small 
church the nucleus of trained voices for a chorus. 
Every winter's program of church work should 
include the singing-school for a term of instruc- 
tion by the best teacher available. Some years 
ago in many parts of the country itinerant singing 
teachers had their round of five or six churches 
every week in different towns. The whole 
church was taught congregational singing, and 
what power came to the special meetings! The 
gospel in song is of mighty power and it is 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



2 S9 



passing strange that churches will be content 
even for a month with lifeless, incorrect, and un- 
helpful singing. 

The broader Christlike work is actually done 
by some village congregations. A church in a 
little village in a neighboring state has a fine 
parish house with many lines of helpfulness, the 
popular resort every night of young and old. 
The church and Sunday-school are led in all 
modern methods and with spiritual power.* 

5. Moral culture must be undertaken specifi- 
cally if it is to be adequate in these days. There 
is confusion as to duties in business life, in Sab- 
bath keeping, in popular amusements, in personal, 
civic, and social reforms. The importance of a 
tender and intelligent conscience is fundamental, 
but such a conscience is the result of careful 
teaching, personal thought upon great questions, 
and unflinching obedience to the right as it ap- 
pears. What is the church doing for the moral 
culture of its people? What means or meetings 
has she for the training of tender conscience and 
specific traits of moral character? 

There should, of course, be a clear ethical note 
111 all sermons, sound teaching in the Sunday- 
school, and frequent public discussions of moral 
questions. In all its own business the church 
should set the example of promptness, scrupulous 
honesty and fidelity. It is a monstrous wrong 
to immature character to have the church or the 

* Berwyn, Maryland, Presbyterian Church, 



26o RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

pastor involved in questionable business transac- 
tions. 

The godly man is one who loves the Lord his 
God with all his heart, with all his mind, with all 
his soul, and with all his strength. We need not 
discuss the psychology of this division of human 
nature to become convinced that it means the 
whole man with every side of his nature devel- 
oped and consecrated to God's service. We are 
not making such men when we have only their 
hearts, regenerated and confine our work nar- 
rowly to the spiritual. We are indeed beginning 
the good work aright, but all the man is one and 
all of the man must necessarily be reached with 
new life to save him completely. Here is the 
Divine Charter of the church requiring her to do 
such institutional work which is co-ordinated with 
a powerful spiritual center. Every new develop- 
ment of such a church returns added power to the 
spiritual and contributes to personal power in 
Christian work. It is the five-pointed star which 
at a distance shines with one glorious effulgence. 
Such a church is a true church of the Kingdom 
of Christ. 

Professor Kenyon L. Butterfield of the Mass- 
achusetts Agricultural College, who is one of 
former President Roosevelt's Commission on 
Country Life, said recently, " The country church 
must play an increasingly larger part in the de- 
velopment of country life. I believe country 
clergymen should have some special training for 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 26 1 

their work in the way of special reading courses or 
in the seminaries. They should get more into 
touch with the problems of the farm and seek to 
develop a deeper interest among country life 
educational leaders in the country itself. We 
should keep more of our leaders at home. I don't 
believe in keeping all the boys on the farm but 
we don't want the motion to obtain, as it does in 
some places, that the way to make a big success 
of life is to get away from the farm." 

11 Greatly begin ! though thou have time 
For but a line, be that sublime, 
Not failure but low aim is crime." 

Lowell. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

USING ALL HER RESOURCES. 

The Christian church is at sea about the duty 
of giving. The disastrous effects of this con- 
fusion of thought and lack of definite principles 
fall most heavily upon the small country church. 
The uncertainty about what the will of God is 
concerning our offerings and the indecision as to 
methods is unworthy of our day of Bible study 
and practical wisdom. 

In the country church there is not often a 
very wealthy man who pays all the arrearages 
with cheerfulness, or with a grimace, but who in 
either attitude makes sure the church comes out 
square every year; nor are there in the country 
the small group of rich men who give three- 
fourths of the church's income. The little 
church in the village, whether panics come or 
go, is in continual financial hardships. The appeal 
to be " specially liberal to-day " on the plate is a 
regular accompaniment of worship, or a painful 
interruption of it, for the appeal must often 
262 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 263 

needs be made, as the pastor thinks, with a 
humorous remark, or an attempt at it, at which 
the strained feelings of the congregation break 
into a smile perfunctorily. We heard a dignified 
minister break the sweet influence of a season of 
worship on a New Year Sunday by urging all 
the people to give liberally, in fact " to give all 
the money they had in their pockets for he heard 
that an old proverb declared it is bad luck to 
leave the church on New Year Sunday with any 
money in your pocket ! " That, however, was 
far less coarse than the usual funny story that 
starts the plate merrily along the aisles to receive, 
in spite of the desecrating story, just the same 
pennies it would have jingled if nothing had 
been said. And this pastor called the giving wor- 
ship and blessed it when it returned to him. But 
he was not consistent in not introducing the long 
prayer with a very funny story and the hymns 
with a really humorous remark. Here we see 
the confusion in which giving is left. 

But let us kindly remember that in many cases 
the pastor who makes the appeal has not a 
" whole silver dollar to rub against another in 
his pocket." One of them has a salary promised 
of six hundred dollars a year with two hundred 
and fifty in arrears, that is about one hundred 
paid in seven months, and it comes in small 
amounts irregularly. There are many such 
cases, some of them where a rich man could pay 
all the salary without inconvenience, but he neither 



264 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

pays much nor develops a financial system. In 
probably a majority of country churches there is 
no financial method. A few times a year there 
is hurrying and scurrying, suppers and festivals, 
to make up " interest " on a long standing mort- 
gage, or salary, in a humiliating way that is fear- 
fully costly to the church's influence. 

The plate collection is the only universal cus- 
tom. It is sometimes a supplement to more sys- 
tematic offerings by envelopes, but even as a 
supplement it seems a pitiable thing to exhibit 
before God in our land of abounding prosperity 
and reckless extravagance upon personal com- 
forts. People who many times a week buy cigars 
for five cents, and chewing gum, soda water, and 
every other such thing, give in the following 
ways to God's cause once or twice a week. I 
have collected actual statistics of plate offerings 
in suburbs, villages, and towns. 

In a good suburb for each service the average 
is 23/2 cents for each person present for the plate 
which is solemnly offered to God! 

In a country village with about twenty persons 
as the average attendance the offerings were 
about fifty cents for each service. 

A fine country church gives less per member 
on the plate than two cents, and this church 
gives altogether from many rich farmers about 
an average of only three dollars a year to all 
church work, local and general. 

Imagine a lecture, humorous, literary, or scien- 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 265 

tific, with a plate collection of 2.y 2 cents for each 
person. Or a hospital run on such an income, 
or an army equipped by such contributions, or a 
life-saving station so managed. The hospital, 
the army, and life-saving work are so expensive 
they cannot be supported by private offerings 
but usually have government grants, but would 
the church really be less expensive than a hos- 
pital if the church were as thoroughly alive to 
the real needs of the mind and soul of man as 
physicians are to physical ills and remedies? 

The foregoing specimens of offerings are 
typical of what I have learned but "there are 
better country churches ! " Truly, and these 
admirable ones are some help in pointing the way 
out of the worst Slough of Despond in which the 
church is so needlessly floundering. Many have 
a system of finance and some suburban churches 
like city churches have men who foot all deficits. 

The country church is not poverty-stricken 
because it has no resources but because they are 
undeveloped. Many people in the congregation 
have probably during the week spent several 
times as much foolishly as all the money on the 
plate; more for trifles and luxuries than for 
God's cause. 

Any reform in giving which does not reach the 
New Testament foundations will build on the 
sand. What is the present day Christian's real 
duty in this matter? The money problem is 
well-nigh the supreme current problem of the 



266 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

church. It involves the success of the church, 
best Christian character, and the honor of 
Christ's name. If the church were now holding 
Ecumenical Councils like those of Nice and 
Carthage, it would be worth holding such a rep- 
resentative assembly of all Christians to get at 
something sensible, adequate, and Christlike on 
giving of money. 

Scriptural principles, however, are plain and 
we briefly state them and then develop the only 
system in harmony with them. 

1. The Christian is regarded in the Scriptures 
as not the owner of any goods or money in his 
possession but the steward of it for God. This 
is an ancient doctrine but not carried to practical 
results. The stewardship of wealth is only a 
name until it is made the principle in giving, in 
actual offerings to God. Just as men recognize 
the owner of the house they rent by paying rent 
regularly, or of the money they have borrowed 
by an agreed rate of interest actually paid. Does 
this involve the tithe? Not necessarily as the 
rate of rent or of interest but the tithe is an illus- 
tration of exactly how the Scriptural principle 
operates. 

2. Christian giving should be first-fruits. Be- 
fore he apportions money for anything else he is 
under obligation to give in proportion to his 
prosperity to God, just as rent and interest come 
first. Should he give anything to God's cause 
while he is in debt? Yes! if giving to God's 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 267 

cause is what the Scriptures hold it to be, also a 
debt, and absolutely, like rent and interest, the 
first claim. The law of first-fruits is based on the 
doctrine of Divine ownership and human 
stewardship. 

3. Hence, systematic and proportionate giving. 
Of what should it be the proportion? Many 
members of the church base it upon the demands 
for money made by the church and estimate 
their proportion of this amount as their full obli- 
gation. Here is the reason for the stress in 
which the church now suffers. There is no such 
notion in the Scriptures on giving. 

Of course it is equitable in a sense for every 
man to give his proportionate share toward any 
need presented by the church. This is the true 
brotherhood of bearing burdens according to 
ability. But no one pays rent to a landlord ac- 
cording to that landlord's needs, nor interest 
according to the lender's needs but according to 
certain rates on the whole amount or the whole 
property used. 

The proportion for giving is based on the in- 
come of the Christian irrespective of the demands 
made upon him by his church. According as the 
Lord has prospered him so let him lay by him in 
store for offerings. The man who gives his share 
of demands made may be far from what he ought 
to give. And he is entirely on the wrong founda- 
tion. The present needs of the church are not the 
ultimate standard for the offerings of God's peo- 



268 - RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

pie, for the church is attempting in only a small 
measure what is her full work. 

3. The offerings should be based on a pro- 
portion of the individual's income in every case. 
This was the principle of tithing in ancient 
Israel and in later times. The treasury might be 
overflowing with unused tithes but this was no 
consideration to the tither. For the tithe it must 
be claimed that it was always a successful way of 
meeting the needs of religious work. In ancient 
Israel when church and state were one it was 
the first tax but by no means the limit of the 
Israelite's offerings. In many cases he probably 
gave fully another tithe and more. 

The tithe was his beginning of offerings, taken 
out as first-fruits, and then he gave free-will 
offerings besides. If now the great council of 
churches we have suggested on this subject were 
considering this matter under the lead of prac- 
tical Christian business men, what other plan 
could they adopt than to make the tithe, waiving 
all kinds of discussion of tithing as now an obli- 
gation, the sensible practical beginning of giving? 
It is certainly a good way of meeting all the 
principles of Bible offerings, it is simple and 
practicable, and it has the immense advantage of 
universal success wherever seriously tried for a 
time. 

Let some one who objects bring on a better 
plan for beginning the church's financial organi- 
zation now in such a fearful chaos. This matter 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 269 

of securing resources for Christ's work prac- 
tically, with missions now at a standstill and in 
local fields the work blocked for want of support, 
is supreme. We cannot stop longer for aca- 
demic discussion, still less for mere objectors who 
have nothing better to offer. The church in the 
country above all needs a sound and permanent 
financial organization. 

If then, experimentally and not as holding it 
a hard and fast obligation, the church should 
begin by asking all who love Christ and are will- 
ing to tithe to start the plan, we should be upon 
solid ground. If only a few in every church 
began it would be with power. If one-fourth of 
all church members reached tithing in a year 
we should have overflowing treasuries for all 
funds in another year. This is an easy and sure 
start, for every attempt to introduce tithing seri- 
ously has met encouraging response. Perhaps 
another proportion of income, say one-twelfth, 
one-fifteenth, or one-seventh might be tried, but 
no one ever succeeded on another proportion and 
the tithe has the prestige of long centuries and 
universal success, and as a beginning of a. sys- 
tem it carries out the Bible principles of steward- 
ship, first-fruits, and proportion of income. 

(1) Many thousands of young people in the 
Christian Endeavor Tenth Legion began tithing 
with enthusiasm and few have withdrawn. The 
Tenth Legion now numbers 25,073 and was be- 



270 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

gun in 1897 by Mr. W. L. Ammerman. They 
testify of its blessedness warmly. 

(2) Many persons of large income, several 
men of great wealth, are tithers, and speak of it 
with deep gratitude and satisfaction. A large 
number of these testimonies have been gathered. 
(Thos. Kane, 310 Ashland Boulevard, Chicago.) 
These testimonies and instances would surely 
appeal to a practical business man, seeking a 
way out of the church's crisis for money for 
missions and home work. 

(3) A goodly number of churches have 
begun with the " Tithe Covenant " plan for 
volunteers and smaller or larger groups have 
adopted tithing gladly. It seems possible in any 
church to secure a group to begin with it and it 
rapidly spreads to many others. We give a few 
examples, some of them in country churches. 

Wesley Chapel, Cincinnati, was in 1895 in a 
most distressing condition of utter discourage- 
ment. In that year sixty of its members began 
to tithe their income, the number soon rose to 
100 and now 158 are tithers out of a total mem- 
bership of 550. These 158 pay % of the church's 
income, the other 400 only % by free will offer- 
ings, yet they are just as well off. The tithers 
are poor people with an average income of $325, 
their tithe a little over $30. Their tithe is given 
in unnamed envelopes and distributed to 25 
causes, local, home and abroad. This church 
gives more than $1,000 to missions, as much as 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 2 J1 

ten other down town churches. At one time 
out of 769 members 162 were tithers, 105 women, 
45 men, 12 children, giving an average of $31 
for the year, their average income being there- 
fore $310. Only six people owned their homes. 
If all the 769 had tithed the income of the church 
would have been nearly $25,000 for the year. 

East Connersville, Ind., is a country church 
with twenty-five who tithe. After they began 
the church raised the pastor's salary from $153, 
their share on a circuit plan, to $800 with a 
pastor wholly for their church. 

First Baptist Church, Peru, Ind., has 47 who 
tithe (18 men, 23 women, 6 children) and these 
gave $849 in six months. Previously they had 
given $415 in a year. 

United Presbyterian Church, Aurora, 111., 
three of four elders, two of five trustees, the 
pastor and nineteen others (25 in all) out of 150 
members gave 47 per cent, of the church's 
income. 

Third United Presbyterian Church, Chicago, 
has fifty tithers out of 213 and these 1/4 give 3/4 
church offerings, 5/6 of all for missions. 

An interesting statement of the tithers of the 
Memorial Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, 
shows how God often prospers those who thus 
honor his cause. Observe the increase in returns 
from just 2j tithers in successive quarters: — 

First quarter, $319. 

Second quarter, $723. 



272 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Third quarter, $815. 

Fourth quarter, $652. 

Fifth quarter, $617. 

Sixth quarter, $910. 

Seventh quarter, $880. 

Eighth quarter, $1,256. 

Later there were 70 tithers who gave, Jan. I 
to Oct. 1, 1904, $3,018. 

All others in the church, $1,550. 

Delaware Avenue Baptist Church, Buffalo, 30 
tithers gave $2,500 in 1903, a gain of $700 by 
them in 1902. 

The tithe was first adopted in Palestine, a land 
of small towns and villages. It is, therefore, a 
plan perfectly suited to the town and village 
conditions. How can the farmer calculate the 
real tenth of his income? Or how the country 
storekeeper? It is not possible to determine to 
a cent but it can be approximated. Let each man 
estimate about what is his personal income after 
deducting business expenses from gross receipts. 
Give the benefit of the doubt to the Lord's cause, 
for the tithe is not the limit of giving but only 
the practical beginning. The farmers and store- 
keepers who tithe have not been confused about 
how to calculate it. It may be calculated on the 
income of the preceding year where otherwise 
difficult to estimate. 

Let the country church come to see the neces- 
sity of Scriptural giving; see the crisis upon the 
church for want of it, and the simple and sensi- 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



273 



ble beginning of it by the tithe. A tithe is a fair 
rent for a building. The Sabbath law requires 
one-seventh of time to be given directly to God, 
who has claim to all, and is a close analogy. In 
both cases, the tenth of money and the seventh of 
time, there is no complete discharge of obligation, 
for all time and all money are to be used as God 
directs. But the direct giving of the propor- 
tionate first-fruits, the first day of the week and 
the first tenth of our income, are acknowledg- 
ment of Divine ownership and our stewardship 
of time and possessions. 

Here the local church may practically start 
the Scriptural way of offerings in worship of 
God. There is now literature that will very 
clearly present the tithe, show its reasonable 
character, and then the pastor or church should 
issue a call to the willing ones after much prayer 
and conference. A country church in Pennsyl- 
vania had nearly a hundred to respond after a 
wise presentation of the matter and that church 
has wonderfully flourished since. Individuals 
who tithe, like the writer for more than twenty- 
five years, always speak of the convenience of it 
and the satisfaction of it as a method. All 
tithers are sure also to be " free-will offerers " 
beyond, but the tithe is the first-fruits taken out 
sacredly first. We waive, let us repeat, all dis- 
cussion of the tithe as an obligation upon Chris- 
tians or as the limit of their obligation. We see 
in it only a practical and sure beginning of 



274 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



Scriptural giving which shall be upon the prin- 
ciples of stewardship, proportionate of income, 
first-fruits and systematic. 

The crisis upon the church in regard to her 
inadequate income is painful and shameful. It 
arises from the very success of Foreign Missions 
and unparalleled opportunities in the Home Land. 
But the loaal church's undeveloped resources 
and her untrained membership are the gigantic 
obstacle. We heard recently a passionate plea 
from the secretary of a great denomination's 
Board of Home Missions that was obliged to cut 
appropriations this very year nearly 20 per cent, 
on all its fields, though they ought to spend twice 
the former amount at once, and yet with the cut 
fifty thousand dollars in debt! And a few days 
later the secretary of the Foreign Missions just 
as painfully showed wonderful opportunities in 
China, Korea, in South America, and in Africa 
calling for millions of money at once but nothing 
additional forthcoming. Young men offer them- 
selves for Mission work who are remarkably en- 
dowed and cultured but there is no money to 
send them! Fields calling for hundreds more 
men but workers actually have to be withdrawn 
for want of money ! 

And all the while the church in America has 
members in the midst of boundless material pros- 
perity only one-sixth of whom have ever heard 
of these wonderful opportunities, and few of 
these one-sixth giving systematically or propor- 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 275 

tionately. The other five-sixths never from their 
conversion on have been made to feel any real 
sense of their responsibility for the salvation. of 
the world or for Scriptural giving. 

The pleas, agonizing pleas, of these missionary 
secretaries were made to the pastors of these un- 
developed churches, and because nothing was 
done to fully organize for missions and finances, 
probably not one thousand dollars additional 
could be wrung from the nearly three hundred 
country and city pastors who heard and ap- 
plauded the great speeches! 

Yet no one doubts that universal tithing or 
even a partial number in all churches tithing, or 
simply calling into organisation those willing to 
begin, under good leadership would solve the 
fearful problem. No one is able to suggest any 
other way, for every other way has been tried, 
good plans and discreditable plans, and all have 
failed. 

One-seventh of time was to be the Lord's in 
the ancient church and one : tenth of income. We 
have maintained the time proportion in Sabbath 
keeping but what would have happened if we 
had dealt with that as we do with the one-tenth 
of income? What if preaching about the Sab- 
bath institution were as shifty, uninformed, and 
undecided as it is upon the tithe ? Confusion and 
disaster upon the church would result if the 
Sabbath were abandoned. But confusion, shame, 
and disaster in fearful crises are upon the church 



276 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

for want of money. Lack of money for larger 
mission work in Japan has probably lost Christ 
that empire for this generation; it will forfeit 
the marvelous educational opportunity in China 
in the next decade; and India, South America, 
and other ripe fields. 

How successful is the tithe! By it, as a 
voluntary undertaking, even a little country 
church that had raised only $150 for a pastor's 
salary became such a success that they wanted 
a pastor's full time and gave him $800. So there 
will be overflowing treasuries when Christians 
give by the Scriptural plan, and not simply on 
the present demands of a timid and partially 
worked church, unable to enter vast fields white 
to the harvest. 

4. The local church and the general field 
should ordinarily share equally. This is the 
principle adopted by the best progressive 
churches. An envelope, the duplex, is a con- 
venient plan for carrying it into effect. 

5. When the tithing has reached a large num- 
ber of any church the distribution of funds may 
be planned broadly for all. 

6. In the use of the Lord's money a serious 
question is upon the crowded condition of 
churches in many small towns. As long as there 
are 15 denominations of Baptists in America, 9 
of Catholics, 24 denominations of Lutherans, 17 
of Methodists, 12 of Presbyterians, 3 Reformed, 
and about forty good sized denominations be- 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 277 

sides, the inviting little town will have in many 
cases five to eight weak churches. Sometimes 
there are two or three strictly of the Methodist 
type, or that number all Lutherans, or Baptists, 
besides other denominations. There would not 
be necessary the surrender of a single doctrine, 
nor much, if any change, in forms of worship to 
unite these churches of the same type in a town. 
There are, of course, personal reasons, family 
reasons, old associations, property .questions, but 
all these ought to be given up for the honor of 
Christ's cause. There have been in a few cases 
the union of Baptists with Congregational, and 
Methodist with Congregational, but the union of 
weak churches of exactly the same type ought to 
be much easier, and in the small town is surely 
an imperative duty. The two pastors out of five 
thus released and the money raised, besides what 
the denominational Home Missions give, are 
needed elsewhere. For every town with too 
many churches there is another with none at all. 
A competent authority, Rev. Dr. Ward Piatt,* 
of one great Home Missionary Society, says, 
" In the new Northwest of the United States 
there are more than 1,000 towns where boys and 
girls have never seen a church, never had the 
privilege of attending a Sunday-school, and in 
which no religious societies exist." This is only 
one section. The federation or amalgamation of 

* " The Frontier " — a discussion of Home Missions of great 
value. Rev. Dr. Ward Piatt. 



278 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

churches in older towns is a delicate matter when 
one gets close to it, or when one is pastor or 
trustee in one of the churches. But it is an 
imperative duty and necessity and has fortunately 
already been made a success. 

In Vermont there are several small villages 
where a Congregational church without a pastor 
joined with a Methodist church in employing 
one pastor, each paying an equitable portion of 
expenses, and the benevolent offerings being 
apportioned to each denomination in the same 
way. Or a Baptist and a Methodist church were 
thus united. The arrangement is a success, as 
one of these pastors reports. In other states 
efforts are made with promise for complete 
amalgamation of two or three small churches 
into one, the denominational leaders approving 
and urging it. 

In Philadelphia, Dec. 8, 1908, the Federal 
Council of the Churches of Christ in America, a 
new organization for effective fellowship in the 
work of Christ's Kingdom, and representing 
officially twenty-three denominations including 
all the large ones, took advanced ground upon 
this duty of uniting small churches in towns 
now overcrowded with them. It " urges denomi- 
national leaders to come together in frank, fra- 
ternal conferences to consider their common in- 
terests in the extension of the Lord's Kingdom 
in rural districts, in order that financial wasteful- 
ness may be stopped, unseemly rivalry cease in 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 279 

carrying on the work of evangelization. That 
over-churched communities may be relieved, un- 
churched communities supplied, and the cause of 
Christ find a new place of honor in the hearts of 
men.' , 

Some Sunday-schools are now undertaking 
Scriptural instruction in giving in a practical and 
successful way possible at once in all towns, 
suburbs, and villages. The plan requires that 
the church assume all expenses of the school in 
its annual budget, and then have the Sunday- 
school on successive Sundays contribute to 
missions, to general church movements, and to 
the local church. These interests in each case 
are presented on the Sunday previous in a five- 
minute talk, using the blackboard and charts for 
statistics and outline exhibit. On first Sundays 
of the month, missions receive the offering; on 
the second, the local church ; on the third, gen- 
eral movements of the church ; on the fourth, the 
local church again ; and on the fifth Sunday of a 
month which occurs once a quarter, some special 
cause local or general. Under wise instruction 
and management the Sunday-school gives back 
to the local church twice what its expenses are, 
and still better there is being trained a new 
generation of systematic and proportionate con- 
tributors to the Lord's work in the world. 

If now, in thinking of the difficulties of secur- 
ing sufficient resources for the Lord's work, we 
glance for a moment at the wealth and income 



2 8o RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

of the American people, how the importance of 
systematic and proportionate offerings is finally 
emphasized. 

The enormous total wealth of the people in the 
United States is an incomprehensible figure, 
116,000,000,000 (116 billions) of dollars, or 
nearly $1,500 to each man, woman and child. 
Of this — 

Productive Real Estate and Improvements. . . 55,000,000,000. 
(Taxed property presumably earning income.) 

Live Stock 4,073,000,000. 

Agricultural Products (in stock) 1,899,000,000. 

Manufacturing " 7,409,000,000. 

Annual value of all farm returns* 7,400,000,000. 

Annual returns from manufacturing 15,000,000,000. 

The United States contains only five per cent, 
of the world's population, but it raises 20 per 
cent, of all its wheat, 35 per cent, of its coal, 24 
per cent, of its gold, 38 per cent, of its silver, 40 
per cent, of its iron, 42 per cent, steel, 55 per cent, 
petroleum, 70 per cent, of its cotton, and 70 per 
cent, of its corn. 

The United States Census collected statistics 
of the earnings in 123,703 establishments em- 
ploying 3,207,819 work-people, over one-half of 
the whole number in America in such work. 
Their weekly pay is $33,185,791, about $1,600,- 
000,000 a year. 

One-third of all the people (more than ^ 
really) belong to the church. One-third of all 
* Estimate of Secretary of Agriculture for 1908. 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 28 1 

the above income, or estimated income, if tithed, 
would reach from one thousand to nearly two 
thousand millions of dollars a year! The total 
offerings are probably less than two hundred 
millions for all purposes of religious service. 
That is about one-tenth of one-tenth of the in- 
come of Christian people in America. If we 
approached the tithe every movement of Christ's. 
Kingdom could be wonderfully expanded, and 
the world could indeed be saved in this gen- 
eration. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

DISCOVERING, TRAINING, AND PLACING HER 
LEADERS AND WORKERS. 

" We raise men here," said a Massachusetts 
farmer when his barren hills were compared with 
a sneer to Western fertility. To raise men is the 
real mission of the church, for all her work is 
for men, by men and for the production of noble 
manhood. Her supreme effort, therefore, must 
be to discover thoroughly able leaders and work- 
ers who can influence men in our day. 

These able workers cannot be found already in 
full equipment. The church discovers them, if 
at all, in the rough, untrained, undeveloped. 
They must be recognized in the promise of their 
powers. 

I. How can the work of finding talents in the 
country church be so organized that none escape ? 
That the boy who might become a great mission- 
ary or a powerful preacher, a bold and success- 
ful reformer, or an educational leader may be 
brought out fully? Who does not recognize the 
paramount importance of it? The solemn obli- 
282 



THE CHUR CH IN R URAL CHRIS TIA NIZING. 283 

gation of it? One such person found is reward 
for a generation's effort and lifts the church into 
a new era. 

Discerning of spirits was accounted a Divine 
endowment upon the Apostles. The Lord bids us 
pray to him that he would send forth laborers 
into his harvest. After the prayer, in Christ's 
own case an all-night one, we may well be on the 
alert to see whom the Lord is calling. So the 
pastor and the church officers should seek for 
promising young men and women, and for all 
older men yet undeveloped, as men search for 
diamonds. 

1. They will often be found hidden in a home 
with a dull and unhelpful parentage. Heredity 
has many subtle laws not yet defined. In a home 
where the father was unintelligent and without 
aspirations, the mother almost simple-minded, a 
brilliant little girl was born. She was intensely 
active in mind, with remarkable memory, imagi- 
nation, penetration, and gifts of expression. 
Fortunately for her, she was too bright to be 
hidden. In another home of direct poverty and 
ignorance a brainy student and preacher distin- 
guished in two continents began his life. Some- 
times these children of genius in hard conditions 
themselves break through all barriers, especially 
when a part of their genius is an unconquerable 
will. But many have other fine qualities but not 
the strong will or defiant self-assertion. Gray's 



284 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

" Elegy in a Country Churchyard " has appli- 
cation possibly to every country churchyard. 

" Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid, 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 

Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, 

Or wake to ecstasy the living lyre ; 

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest; 

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood." 

Oh ! the pity of it, the immeasurable loss of it to 
the world and to the kingdom of Christ. Let us 
stop any further such losses. 

Unusual talents are often joined to profound 
modesty and self-depreciation, and unless some 
one lifts the person out of himself into his 
opportunity he will never seek it. Yet this same 
modesty or a genuine humility is one of the 
beautiful and powerful Christian graces, and if 
the Church can bring out this soul of intellectual 
powers it will secure a great spiritual leader. It 
will pay to search dark corners of the field for 
jewels of the kingdom. 

2. The parents' estimate of a child is often 
utterly wrong. The dreaming boy of some spe- 
cial talents is to his plodding farmer father sim- 
ply a lazy fellow. The boy does not enthusi- 
astically follow the plow and feed the cattle, and 
is scolded, punished and repressed. It may be 
true that he is lazy and fitted only for hard labor- 
ing. But he ought to be thoroughly understood 
first of all. His heart's deepest aspirations, if he 
has such, should be sympathetically welcomed. 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 285 

His sense of Divine mission for himself must be 
profoundly considered. He may have will 
enough to continue in spite of all opposition, but 
when too late it may be found he had not. There 
is no substitute for close comradeship with one's 
children to learn what is in their hearts, put 
there, it may be, by the spirit of God. The pas- 
tor and the church must develop this same close 
fellowship and comradeship with young people 
to save the best from life-long loss. How can 
the uneducated farmer father be expected to 
appreciate the child who at school, possibly by 
the touch of a splendid teacher, has been 
awakened to visions of a wonderful mission for 
which he has a strangely rich natural equipment? 
Or, how can the mother, however loving, who is 
bound to unending and life-crushing kitchen 
tools see what the child sees? Here is where 
the Church has a sublime mission in country 
homes to discover to the parents the real capacity 
and promise of their children, and thus to save 
these children from being irreparably wronged 
and the world robbed of its leaders. How beauti- 
ful in the life of Lincoln, the uncouth country 
boy, that his stepmother understood him! It is 
encouraging indeed that all over the land country 
pastors can tell stories of splendid discoveries of 
such boys and girls. 

3. These coming men of power are often 
hidden in homes of wickedness. The saloon 
keeper's child, the drunken criminal's child 



286 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

whose father and mother are often in jail, and 
the dissolute woman's child ought to be helped 
in Christlike compassion. These innocent ones 
suffer enough for the time not to have their 
whole life blasted by another's sin. The church 
which eagerly does such work has its reward not 
only in saving souls but in rinding sometime a 
notable worker. Instances of men risen to promi- 
nence from such degradations are not proclaimed 
from housetops, for the men gladly throw a veil 
over such childhood, but every man who has 
come close to many great men knows several 
such cases. Enough to encourage every worker 
to gather all these children into church and the 
very babies upon the Cradle Roll. 

4. They are often hidden under homely per- 
sonal appearance or even repelling peculiarities. 
A distinguished pastor and educator was taken 
out of an orphanage because a kind-hearted 
woman decided to select the homeliest child there 
since no one else would be likely to want him. 
Another most brilliant scholar and pastor was 
repulsive with tiny eyes, great ugly nose, brick 
red hair, and queer head upon illshapen shoul- 
ders. He told me that when he took a new 
charge and walked up the aisle for the first time 
he could not help hearing involuntary exclama- 
tions, " My ! What a homely man ! " He said 
good-naturedly, and what a triumph it meant, 
" I pity the congregation when I rise and have 
to present such a face to them ! " Think of the 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 287 

fearful odds in the struggle that would accumu- 
late. But he was a beautiful character later in 
life, a marvelous preacher, a great spiritual 
leader and a diamond of many facets of glory. 
There are others such in the village who are the 
butt of ridicule in general but who have souls of 
wonderful powers. In any case the homely chil- 
dren ought to be specially fathered and mothered 
by the church for tender love of Christ's sake. 
5. In the better homes where parents are sin- 
cerely on the watch for their children's future 
there are perils for both parents and child. The 
danger of the fond parent's prepossession for the 
child toward a certain career instead of a study 
of the child's abilities and fitness. The father 
wants his boy to become his successor in a pro- 
fession or in business, but God has another call 
for the boy. The pious mother consecrates her 
boy to the Christian ministry and is dismayed to 
find he feels God's call to another field. On the 
other hand there are all too few Christian mothers 
now consecrating their sons to the work of 
preaching the Gospel, for doubtless in most cases 
God inspired the mothers. The church may 
wisely teach the better way of seeking to know 
God's mission for every child. We will not 
lightly give up the ancient and comforting faith 
that God has a plan for every life in this world. 
What is it for the particular child? Children 
have been repressed and their real powers sup- 
pressed in good homes from religious motives 



288 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

no less than in irreligious homes for sinful 
purposes. 

II. Having found the diamond in the rough, 
what is the duty of the country church in polish- 
ing it? What is possible in training? 

1. The use of colleges and technical schools 
by the church. There is no greater work the 
rural pastor can do than to direct his young peo- 
ple to higher schools for a larger education. He 
may create an atmosphere for college prepara- 
tion in his little church. He may well become an 
enthusiast for the young people's education so 
that the close-fisted and plodding farmers will 
open to it, and all the people rightly estimate it. 
Who does not know that three or four times as 
many students might throng our colleges and 
universities as now attend if pastors in the coun- 
try saw this opportunity for their young people? 

2. Individual counsel in studies of earnest 
young people or by bringing educated people 
into friendly relations with them. There are 
many pastors who gladly become private tutors 
in their long leisure hours to the aspiring but 
poor young man. There are no happier experi- 
ences than years afterward to talk over these 
early efforts. 

3. Organize Chautauqua Circles in the village 
or town. One small town is notable as having 
for many years had large circles and at times 
four circles in different churches. Other reading 
courses are helpful. 



THE CHURCH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 289 

4. Institute a Bible study class, a Teacher 
Training class, and direct larger Bible reading 
in connection with prayer-meetings and public 
services. The teacher training movement is now 
sweeping the country, and it is no longer pos- 
sible to object that it is impracticable in the 
country village or small town, for in hundreds 
of these places they have been in successful 
operation. Every such class a success means a 
new Sunday-school with real educational Bible 
work, spiritual ingathering, and character de- 
velopment. No meeting is so delightful nor so 
widely helpful in all church enterprise. 

III. The placing of the leaders and workers 
is the final responsibility of the church, so fearful 
in its importance that Christ saw it, as noted be- 
fore, and spent a whole night in prayer before 
he chose the twelve apostles. In earlier times the 
ordination of a pastor was preceded by fasting 
and prayer by the whole church. What shall 
we think then of church elections so flippant in 
spirit, so full of unworthy motives ? Of elections 
to the Sunday-school Superintendency where low 
political tricks are used? Of bitter fights over 
the elections of trustees? There ought to be 
long prayer for God to choose and to send forth 
the man he selects. How beautiful the ancient 
Israelitish customs of God's call to king, prophet 
and leader. He promises to do it for the Church 
to-day. 

I. This does not preclude the most thorough 



290 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

consideration of the fitness of the candidate but 
it requires it. The office ought to be magnified 
in importance, intellectual and spiritual qualifi- 
cations of the highest kind sought for it, and the 
best man always voted for in fear of God, for it 
is God's cause we are seeking to promote. 

2. Regular terms for all officers are essential. 
Indefinitely continued Sunday-school officers, 
trustees, or deacons have crippled many churches 
beyond redemption. Some of these officers want 
to make a time record of a quarter century serv- 
ice, but they are seeking only a " time " record, 
not a record of real achievements. It seems to 
matter little that the church or the Sunday-school 
is sadly declining under their administrations, 
that no new people are being received, no ingath- 
ering, no spiritual results. It is enough for them 
to point to twenty-five years in that office, time, 
time, but little, work done. 

3. The work of men elected by prayer and 
wisdom should be appreciated by the church. 
Men have given twenty years of really good serv- 
ice and the church been blessed of God by them 
and no recognition of it is made. They step out 
of office and their successors are elected with 
only perfunctory thanks. The wise pastor will 
correct this neglect. Birthdays of good men 
furnish him a fine opportunity to call the church 
to honor him. There is no better way to pro- 
mote earnest and faithful service. 

" No man is born into the world whose work is not born with 
him." — Lowell. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

SPECIFIC ORGANIZATIONS IN THE COUNTRY 
CHURCH. 

We have now seen the gospel principles on 
which Christ organized the Church for work. 
These are her chart and constitution. Unless 
she steers closely by these she is adrift, near to 
perilous reefs, and will be long overdue, if not 
wrecked. 

1. Preaching the gospel to every creature. In 
the distant world by intelligent personal responsi- 
bility of every member either to go, or to send 
aid by Scriptural offerings; in its immediate 
field by every member's personal work, and teach- 
ing all of Christ's truth. 

2. Employing every member in Christlike 
breadth of work that will use all his talents. 

3. Ministering effectively to every side of 
every man's nature. 

4. Developing the resources of the church by 
the complete Scriptural principles. 

5. Discovering leaders and workers, training 
and placing them. 

291 



292 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



These principles when realized constitute the 
powerful spiritual center in a thoroughly or- 
ganized church. 

Remember that as no army is organized until 
every enlisted soldier is in a definite company at 
a definite post with gun in hand and drilled; no 
factory organized until every workman is in a 
definite department at a designated work-bench, 
so no church can be overorganized or even fully 
organized while the members are unplaced at 
specific work for Christ. 

Many societies, bands, leagues, associations are 
required by the fully organized local church, all 
strictly co-ordinated with the spiritual norm, and 
all contributing to church membership and suc- 
cess, instead of drawing away from the church as 
some Institutional work otherwise has done. 
The church should become a living spiritual or- 
ganism in vital unity, however many and largely 
developed may be the auxiliary branches. It 
should not be a patchwork with little spiritual 
power, adding societies as fancy suggests another 
and another side of activity. 

If every member of the church is to be placed 
at service according to his ability and every 
person helped according to his need, how many 
organizations will the local church require? 
One great church has sixty associations all in 
active success ; some country churches have 
twenty-five to thirty. 

We therefore study some specific organizations 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



2 93 



now at work in country churches, more or less 
the natural outgrowth of the Scriptural principles 
before outlined. 

I. The Sunday-school in modern efficiency. 
Barring all untried theories now we glance at 
what the Bible School to-day accomplishes. 

I. If it is graded on psychological bases and 
has improved courses of Bible study, including 
both International Graded Lessons, memory and 
supplemental lessons, it will become the church's 
most helpful school of the Bible. The grading 
now includes as departments, the Cradle Roll for 
the infants, under three years of age who usually 
are unable to attend the school; this is the true 
infant class, spiritually cared for in many ways 
as Cradle Roll plans have shown. Next the 
Beginners' Department of children from three to 
six years, for whom a special course of lessons is 
provided. Then the Primary from six years to 
nine ; next, the Junior from nine to twelve years ; 
and the Intermediate from twelve to sixteen 
years ; the Senior and Adult departments, all with 
special organization and lessons adapted to their 
needs. The Teacher Training department in the 
school itself, consists of young and old preparing 
to teach in the future, and the Teacher Training 
class meets during the week and consists of 
teachers now in service; both pursue the same 
special course of lessons upon the Bible, the 
school, the principles of teaching, and Sunday- 
school organization in some text-book selected 



294 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



from many excellent ones now at hand. The 
Home Department provides for distribution of 
lessons to all who are unable to attend the school 
session and for some supervision at home. 

This grading is possible and is done in many 
small country Sunday-schools of twenty-five to 
fifty enrolment. One class may form a depart- 
ment and have the graded lesson, and promotions 
be carefully made from class to class as depart- 
ments. The schools which have conquered the 
initial difficulties have found it a power in Bible 
instruction. 

2. Supplemental lessons include courses on 
Bible books and general contents, on Bible 
geography, doctrines, ethics ; on church history 
and doctrines, missions, and on hand work. These 
supplemental lessons are developed in small book- 
lets, are studied at home, and recited in the first 
five or eight minutes of the Sunday-school lesson 
period before going to the International lesson. 

3. Teacher Training is successfully done in 
many country districts. The first man to com- 
plete the course in Pennsylvania is a country 
pastor, and he has carried several classes through 
the course in a farming district and small village. 

4. Spiritual work can be planned through 
the teachers by careful preparation and personal 
work of the teachers before, at, and after a De- 
cision or Confession day. In some cases these 
plans have reached and brought to Christ every 
unsaved scholar in the school. 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



2 95 



5. The adult organized class movements, 
whether on Baraca and Philathea plans or others, 
have become the most popular movements of the 
day. The entrance of large numbers of men and 
women into active Sunday-school work has given 
the school new dignity and popularity.* 

The church Sunday-schools are under the direct 
supervision of the church through its official ses- 
sion, council, quarterly conference or annual 
meetings of the congregation. The church some- 
times supports the Sunday-school and then the 
school develops offerings, one or two a month 
for the local church, which train the scholars to 
become regular givers to the church. The re- 
turns from the Sunday-school are always more 
to the church treasury than the school costs. 

We have elsewhere set forth the work of the 
Sunday-school in its ingathering plans and re- 
sults,f and in other work along general lines in 
co-operation with the church. It would require a 
volume itself to detail the very remarkable im- 
provements recently in Sunday-school organiza- 
tion, especially as inspired and effected by County 
and State Sunday-school organizations. One 
further illustration ought to be given. Fayette 
County, Pennsylvania, five years ago had 151 
Sunday-schools with 13,996 enrolled, thirteen 
Cradle Rolls and eight Home Departments, the 
Sunday-schools containing only thirteen per cent. 

* See Appendix for extended plans, 
t Chap. XIX. 



296 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

of the total population of the county. This was 
the lowest of any county in the State. Now there 
are 261 Sunday-schools with 33,000 enrollment 
which is fully 30 per cent, of the population, 136 
Cradle Rolls, 98 Home Departments, 72 Teacher 
Training classes and about 60 adult organized 
classes. All these gains though by County Asso- 
ciation work went directly to local schools and 
they were largely the work of one earnest man, 
Mr. B. S. Forsythe. The spiritual ingathering 
into churches has been correspondingly large all 
over the county. This wonderful result has been 
achieved by institutes, conventions, a large 
correspondence, a county school of methods for a 
week for two years, a state convention, and the 
field work of this earnest layman for a few years. 
This is a county almost wholly rural, coal mining 
in large part, and many sections chiefly with 
foreign people. 

In general it will be found that when a Sunday- 
school is smaller than the church membership the 
church roll steadily decreases to the Sunday- 
school level. When the Sunday-school is twice 
as large as the church roll the church grows 
rapidly, and when the Sunday-school teaching is 
far below that of the public school the boys, 
young men and women leave the Sunday-school. 

There are still thousands * of country sections, 

* American Sunday-school Union missionaries and those 
of the great denominations estimate 25,000 to 30,000 such 
places in America. 



THE CHUR CH IN R URAL CHRISTIANIZING. 2 g 7 

some of them in the older States, where the small 
Sunday-school of twenty scholars or less is the 
only religious organization now possible. Here 
the Sunday-school, while adapting plans of thor- 
ough organization to local conditions, must feel 
its larger obligation to the religious needs of the 
sparsely settled region in which it works. These 
schools should make strenuous efforts to be 
" evergreen " schools, the suggestive name given 
by American Sunday-School Union workers to 
Sunday-schools open all the year. If it seems 
necessary to close in winter let the closed period 
be shortened year after year. It is all essential to 
set high standards of progress which are yet prac- 
tical and attainable in its field. In these strictly 
Sunday-school fields of Christian work there may 
be isolated families reached by neighborly trips 
of the farm carriage or market wagon going for 
them. The plan of the consolidated public school 
in the country furnishing large wagons for routes 
may to some extent voluntarily be carried out for 
the Sunday-school. 

As population increases these Sunday-school 
outposts of the coming church mature into well 
equipped churches. Pastors are called to serve 
them or appointed by the general church or Home 
Missionary society. But for a long time to come, 
so sparsely settled are vast stretches of great 
states, the Sunday-school must pioneer the Chris- 
tianizing of great farming regions. It is impor- 
tant in these little schools that every good plan in 



298 RURAL CHRISTENDOM, 

the Sunday-school movement of modern times 
that can possibly be used should be utilized. The 
Cradle Roll is always easy to organize, the Home 
Department is just what such communities will 
find helpful, and some grading is always possible 
with extra general lessons on the Bible and the 
Christian life. The blackboard may surely be 
used with maps, charts, and Bible pictures. 

II. The Young People's Society. The various 
denominational movements like the Epworth 
League, the Baptist Young People's Union and 
others, with the Christian Endeavor which is 
found in all denominations, have achieved a really 
revolutionary work by young people in the 
church. They have changed the attitude of the 
general church to its young people, giving them 
special attention in all services and larger oppor- 
tunity for service. But the young people's society 
continues the training school for church workers, 
and it has a specially fine opportunity in towns 
and villages. It develops many lines of mission 
work, benevolence, literary, and social work, and 
may be kept deeply spiritual. Its reading courses 
on church history and ethical problems, its splen- 
did mission studies, and its various movements on 
mutual helpfulness and aggressive Christian life, 
like tithing, personal work, secret prayer, and 
mission work have been notable contributions to 
the local church. The rural church should have 
a live young people's society incorporating all 
good adjuncts of the movements at large. Their 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 2 



99 



meetings should be made especially attractive by 
well prepared singing and good leadership. The 
regular meeting will be most helpful during the 
week. For these societies, as for the Sunday- 
school, there is an abundant literature of methods 
of work. 

III. Brotherhoods, as a new organization of 
men for men, have grown large and influential. 
They are social and spiritual and in notable in- 
stances have brought about great revivals gather- 
ing large numbers of men into the church. Their 
social features alone justify their existence. In 
one church a social was held after Sunday night 
service, and every stranger at once taken into the 
church family. Another brotherhood had a no- 
table debating club on great moral and civic ques- 
tions. The rural church in a town or suburb may 
develop a brotherhood which will increase * the 
attendance of men upon church services and have 
an inspiring effect upon young men and boys. It 
will develop a body of men as personal workers. 

IV. The King's Daughters is a society with a 
fine prestige from a general movement, in broad 
and practical lines of Christlike service. It be- 
comes a rich blessing both to the circle and to the 
church. It will care for the sick, the poor, the 
neglected orphan, and do other spiritual and 
benevolent work. 

V. Missionary Bands and societies in the local 
church are becoming well known. The Woman's 
Foreign and the Woman's Home auxiliaries, the 



3 oo RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

Children's Mission bands, and others are very 
helpful in developing the world-wide church con- 
sciousness. Sometimes the local society cares for 
a special worker or for a child in the mission field, 
and this gives definiteness and realism to the 
work. 

VI. Children's Societies are many and are 
usually easy to organize, for children are eager to 
work for Christ in definite ways. The Junior 
Christian Endeavor and other Junior societies are 
fine training schools for child Christians. Mission 
Bands, sunshine circles, temperance societies, like 
the Band of Mercy and the Loyal Temperance 
Legion, are doing great service in many towns 
and villages but as yet a small proportion of the 
whole, and ought to be introduced everywhere. 

VII. Boys' and Girls' Organizations. The 
boys and girls from nine to twelve years of age 
are specially fond of organization and there are 
many helpful societies planned for them which 
are popular, full of enthusiasm, and helpful in 
forming Christian character. See Appendix. 

VIII. Intermediate organizations for young 
people from twelve years to sixteen have come 
into prominence in large numbers in recent years. 
The church has awakened to the consciousness 
of long neglect of youth in any effective way. 
Select such of this list as will employ all the 
young people. See list in Appendix. 

IX. Ladies' Aid Societies are the most numer- 
ous and active, in all probability, of any outside 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 301 

of the Sunday-school and Young People's So- 
cieties. Usually they are operated strictly for 
financial resources and their ability has saved 
many a struggling church from crushing bur- 
dens if not from extinction. There is often found 
a woman of exceptional business ability and here 
only has the church yet used her talents. In 
church building or improvements or in debt pay- 
ing, or even in raising the pastor's salary in an 
emergency the " Ladies Aid " have notable rec- 
ords. In one case a society divided into circles 
of ten each, and each circle led by one of their 
number, worked various devices in a competitive 
way in a country church. 

X. Ushers' Associations are so simple and im- 
mediately helpful they ought to be formed in 
every church. They give excellent culture to 
young men and add much to the comfort of 
strangers and regular attendants. They are often 
the means of beginning definite church work for 
many young men. 

XL Literary and Educational Work in the 
Country Church. 

The best endeavor for the intellectual quicken- 
ing of the church is the well-known Chautauqua 
Literary and Scientific Circle. It will interest 
high school and college graduates, well-educated 
school teachers, and all intelligent people old and 
young. Even a small group of church members 
and friends pursuing the course creates an atmos- 
phere and sets a higher standard of reading and 



302 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



thinking. In one town several churches had the 
C. L. S. C, and a local union was formed which 
built a Chautauqua Hall. The union insures a 
good attendance at high class lectures. 

If there is a village or town literary society * 
the church will find it a helpful social and intellec- 
tual center. Debates on current questions of civic, 
social, or personal ethics are always very popular 
and are a fine development of moral character. 
Reading courses, mission study courses, and the 
C. L. S. C. may all be co-ordinated with the 
literary society for mutual helpfulness. 

XII. Gymnasium classes. Some country 
churches in villages and towns, where no general 
gymnasium under other auspices exists, have be- 
gun one in partial furnishing with excellent re- 
sults. It will be found everywhere of great value 
in character building and in reaching boys and 
young men for the church. 

XIII. Special spiritual organizations in the 
country church. Cottage praying bands which 
hold prayer meetings in homes are of the highest 
value for the training of young converts and for 
aggressive evangelism. Only a leader and a sec- 
retary are required as officers with a membership 
of six to ten men. One church had three such 
bands constantly holding meetings in homes dur- 
ing the week or late Sunday afternoons. One 
band always sought for homes of non-Christian 
people, and the writer as a young man in that 

* See Section II. Chap. XVII. 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 303 

country church remembers the unusual spiritual 
power of those meetings. The fact of being in a 
non-Christian home was an inspiration to deeper 
earnestness and heightened interest. 

Personal Workers' Circles of about five each 
are very helpful. These are connected in some 
instances, with the Adult Organized Bible Class, 
and are called " The Secret Service " because they 
pray for certain men agreed upon by themselves 
but not known to others, and pledge themselves 
to seek every opportunity to speak to them about 
personal salvation. The church at large is being 
aroused to the vital importance of such personal 
work. Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell, the noted 
Baptist pastor, states that 98 per cent, of his over 
five thousand accessions to his great church were 
brought in by personal work. Even where 
churches have large accessions in occasional 
sweeping revivals they would grow faster steadily 
by organized bands of personal workers and when 
the revivals came they would multiply many-fold 
the results. Every member of the church should 
be sought for personal spiritual work, the one 
thing which is most strictly Christlike work. 

" Christian Conversation Classes " are a happy 
scheme by pastors in some towns. These classes 
study personal evangelism by Bible truth, and the 
methods of introducing Bible truth into social 
conversation. Dr. Trumbull's " Individual Work 
for Individuals," S. D. Gordon's " Quiet Talks," 
Dr. Weaver's " Christian Conversationalist " 



304 RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 

and Moody's handbooks on Bible texts are used.* 

Local Mission Sunday-schools are projected by 
little companies of workers from a church. There 
are many neglected neighborhoods where in 
schoolhouses or little village homes a Sunday- 
school may be started. This is excellent work, 
the very best possible work, at which to set young 
converts and promising young leaders. 

In towns where many foreign people are con- 
gregating, young people should be set to studying 
their language and customs to do personal mission 
work among them. There are country churches 
doing this Christlike extension work. 

Young Men's Christian Associations in twenty 
States are now conducting circuits of work for 
young men in towns and country places unable 
to support an association. One secretary supplies 
a dozen points in social, spiritual, and organizing 
service for men and boys. This is an opportunity 
of which many pastors and leaders in such towns 
may avail themselves. 

Schemes of general Bible reading by the 
church are needed. We cannot have too much 
reading of it, if even we should get it re-opened 
in all public schools, and thoroughly taught in 
Sunday-schools; if we should succeed in reviv- 
ing its teaching in all homes and its more 
scholarly study in colleges. All the more would 

* See also Mead's " Modern Church Methods," Stall's 
" Church Methods," Reisner's " Workable Methods for Wide 
Awake Churches," Rice's " Handy Helps." 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 



305 



plans of reading it by the church be adopted 
and prosecuted! 

(1) One pastor suggests for his church every 
winter some particular book like the Gospel of 
John or an Old Testament book of history or 
prophecy. His sermons then are frequently upon 
passages from John, his prayer-meeting talks are 
based upon the most interesting spiritual topics 
of that Gospel. In his pastoral visitation he dis- 
cusses John with those who are reading the book. 
If it is a short book instead of John the next 
course is given in a month or two. He suggests 
helpful books for the family library upon the 
book read. 

(2) Church Bible memory lessons are used by 
some pastors. Twenty choice Psalms are first 
taken up, the 1st, 2nd, 8th, 15th, 19th, 23rd, 51st, 
65th, 90th, 91st, among others; the 12th, 35th, 
53rd of Isaiah ; passages from the Sermon on the 
Mount of five or six verses each ; the parables 
of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son; 
I Corinthians 13, and passages from other 
Epistles. These are recited in prayer-meetings 
and wonderfully enrich that service. 

(3) Some pastors use the International Bible 
Reading Association which pursues a course 
of Daily Readings in connection with the In- 
ternational Sunday-school Lessons ; the daily 
Bible readings of several Sunday-school maga- 
zines. If any of these are adopted they must be 
wisely related to the public services of the church 



306 



RURAL CHRISTENDOM. 



and observed as much as possible by all the 
people. 

3. These schemes are an excellent beginning 
toward that comprehensive Bible work which the 
pastor and church should undertake. They must 
aim to give the whole Bible to the whole church. 
Fragmentary teaching of it by a verse here and 
there, and by unconnected brief prayer-meeting 
lessons cannot develop the fullest power of the 
church nor symmetrical Christian character in 
the people. It is a Providential movement, surely, 
in our day that has rescued the most neglected 
portions of the Bible like the Minor Prophets 
and the Acts of the Apostles, and fixed a very 
thorough study upon them in recent years. And 
these books of the Old Testament as well as the 
early history of the church have proven the most 
stirring messages to the sins and follies of the 
church to-day and inspiring calls to largest serv- 
ice. In the town church and in the suburb it 
is practicable in the course of five years, or even 
if it should be given ten years, to cover a com- 
prehensive Bible study and teaching. The Sun- 
day-school lessons may be co-ordinated with it, 
prayer-meeting lessons, pulpit themes and series 
of revival meeting messages all form a part of it. 

The blessings of a Bible revival in the church 
are sure and immediate. It will fill the general 
field of conversation and drive out small talk 
and gossip. It will be sure to revive family re- 
ligion and in many cases family worship. It 



THE CHURCH IN RURAL CHRISTIANIZING. 307 

will erect standards for business, social life, and 
personal character. It will inspire to larger edu- 
cation, and indeed, it is the foundation of Chris- 
tian civilization in all that is good and uplifting 
to mankind. 



APPENDIX. 

I. Adult Organized Classes. 

In the line of special work these organized classes can do 
there is an excellent summary in the " Pennsylvania Herald,'' 
February, 1909, by Dr. J. G. Huber of Harrisburg: 

1. The Bible class may canvass the church and get every 
man to join the organization. 

2. It may canvass the Sunday-school and invite every young 
man over sixteen to attend the meetings. 

3. Canvass the neighborhood and secure unchurched men 
to affiliate with the class either in an active or an associate 
relationship. 

4. Have careful oversight of the membership roll and oper- 
ate a follow-up system for absent members. 

5. It may arrange for weekly or monthly devotional meet- 
ings for men. 

6. Occasionally conduct a public service in place of the 
regular preaching service, at which the laymen will speak on 
practical Christian subjects, such as " What I Should Do if I 
Were a Preacher," the preacher in turn speaking on the sub- 
ject, " What I Should Do if I Were a Layman." 

7. Plan for evangelistic meetings for men only. Thor- 
oughly advertise them in the community with a view to secur- 
ing the attendance of unchurched men. 

8. Invite men and families to the regular Sunday services, 
and so increase the attendance. 

9. Work for an increased interest and attendance at the 
regular weekly prayer-meeting by securing men to come and 
take part. 

10. Co-operate systematically in revival efforts. 

11. Stand by the minister and church officers in every for- 
ward movement of the congregation. 

3°9 



310 



APPENDIX. 



12. Give occasional social functions in order to enlarge and 
increase the acquaintance of the organization with the men 
of the Sunday-school and community. 

13. Make visiting men and boys feel at home at the church 
services. 

14. Secure the names of strangers in the community and in 
attendance at the church services, and manifest a religious 
interest in them. 

15. Have the men's organization plan the annual Sunday- 
school and church picnic, or outing, and provide music, games, 
refreshments, etc. 

16. Once or twice a year invite the entire church to be the 
guests of the men's organization, the men to furnish both the 
program and simple refreshments. This will give the sisters 
a well-deserved and greatly appreciated rest. 

17. Have a social occasion for the discussion of matters of 
local and general interest, inviting as a special guest a re- 
turned missionary, some general officer of the church, or 
others. 

18. Give a reception to the minister. 

19. Visit the sick and needy, and manifest practical sym- 
pathy and help in time of need and affliction. 

20. Make the minister's Sunday sermons and services 
special subjects of prayer. 

21. Pursue a series of studies in personal work, together 
with constant endeavor to lead men to Christ. 

22. Plan and conduct a series of Bible studies at weekly 
meetings. The demand in some places is for a plan of Bible 
study differing from that of the International Sunday-school 
lessons. 

23. Help to interest the men of the church in the work of 
the Sunday-school. Arrange for lectures on Bible study and 
travels in Bible lands. 

24. Form mission study classes, and so disseminate facts 
and create a missionary interest. 

25. Secure and furnish a reading-room for men and boys of 
the church and community. This is especially necessary in a 
town where there is no Y. M. C. A. 



APPENDIX. 3 H 

26. Provide lectures, books or library for the intellectual 
improvement of men. 

27. Drive a wedge into the monotony of preaching by hold- 
ing open-air meetings during the summer months. 

28. Be responsible for a mission Sunday-school in the 
community, or do some definite work abroad. 

29. Engage earnestly in all movements of civic reform. 

30. Supplement the home in providing for boys and young 
men the means of recreation and amusement, and see that 
they are led into a Christian life. 

31. Help men to discover themselves and realize their 
highest possibilities in Christian usefulness. 

32. Create in men a consciousness of the mission of their 
denomination in the world and promote loyalty in the denomi- 
nation. 

33. One class held a reception Election night near where 
the returns were displayed and served coffee and buns to the 
waiting men. 

34. Another whose pastor was on a circuit offered to pay 
additional support to have him all the time and succeeded. 

35. Another gave baskets to the poor at Christmas. 

36. Organize glee clubs or evangelistic singing, male quar- 
tettes and choruses. 

II. Boys' and Girls' Organizations. 

1. Junior Baraca, M. A. Hudson, Syracuse, N. Y. 

2. Junior Philathea, M. A. Hudson, Syracuse, N. Y. 

3. Boys' Brigade, United Boys' Brigade of America. 

91-93 Wall St., N. Y! 

4. Boys' Life Brigade, Andrew Melrose, 16 Pilgrim St., 

London, E. C. England. 
For those who do not like the military drill. This is a life- 
saving drill and training. 

5. Anti-Cigarette Society, Miss Lucy Page Gaston, The 

Temple, Chicago. 

6. Band of Mercy, 19 Milk St., Boston, Mass. 

7. Girls' Sunshine Band, Edith M. Balch, Burlington, Vt. 

8. Messenger Department, Rev. Joel Harper, 1356 Marion 

St., Denver Colo. 



312 



APPENDIX. 



9. Mission Bands, Denominational Missionary 

Societies. 

10. Boys' Camps and Camping. " (How to Camp) " Henry 

F. Burt, Pillsbury House, Minneapolis, Minn. 

11. The Junior Grange, N. J. Batchelder, Concord, N. H. 

12. Lincoln Legion, Anti-saloon League, 103 E. 125 St., N. Y. 

13. Boys' Whistling Club, Grant O. Tullar, 150 Fifth Ave., 

N. Y. 

14. Nature Study, Bird Classes, Chester A. Reed, Worcester, 

Mass. 

15. Knights of the Holy Grail, Rev. Perry E. Powell, Garrett, 

Ind. 

16. Junior Christian Endeavor, Tremont Temple, Boston, 

Mass. 

17. Knights of the Silver Cross, White Cross, 224 Waverly 

Place, N. Y. 

18. The George Junior Republic, Wm. R. George, Freeville, 

N. Y. 

19. Boyville, Near Cleveland, Ohio. 

20. Nature Study Clubs, The Agassiz Ass'n, H. H. Ballard, 

Pittsfield, Mass. 

Handbook " Three Kingdoms " 75c. 

21. Clan Gordon, (religious) Rev. Granville R. Pike, Eau 

Claire, Wis. 
(List of Thomas Chew, Fall River, Mass, in part.) 

III. Young People's Organizations. 

1. Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Hubert Carleton, Broadway 

Exchange Bldg., Boston. 

2. Woodcraft Indians, Y. M. C. A. 124 East 28th St., New 

York. 

3. Brotherhood of David, Rev. P'rank L. Massoch, Potsdam, 

N. Y. 

4. Order of the Triangle, Eugene C. Foster, care of Y. M. C. 

A.. Detroit, Mich. 

5. Boys' Class of Bible School Cadets, J. H. Elliott, Des 

Moines, Iowa. 



APPENDIX. 



Z^Z 



6. Temple Builders, Colo. State S. S. Association, Denver, 

Colo. 

7. The Quest of the Holy Grail, Rev. H. H. Meyer, 150 

Fifth Ave., New York. 

8. The Knights of Valor, Rev. J. A. Duff, D. D., Aspinwall, 

Pa. 

9. Knights of King Arthur, F. L. Massock, Potsdam, N. Y. 

10. Kings' Daughters and Sons. Mrs. M. L. Dickinson, 156 

Fifth Ave., New York. 

11. Dorcas Circle, 

12. Queen Esther Circle. 

13. I. A. H. Circle (for girls) D. C. Cook, Elgin, 111. 

14. Elder Brother Organization, Rev. W. M. Smith, D. D. 

East 57th St., New York. 

15. Loyal Temperance Legion, The Temple, Chicago, 111. 

16. White Shield League, Eaton & Mains, 150 Fifth Ave., 

New York, N. Y. 

17. The Chautauqua Junior Naturalists Club, Ithaca, N. Y. 

18. Civic Co-operation Association, R. D. Routsaln, Municipal 

Museum, Chicago, 111. 

19. Quest of the White Shield, Rev. E. M. Waring, Williams- 

port, Ind. 

20. Knights of the Church, D. C. Cook, Elgin, 111. 

(List of Mr. Frank L. Brown, Brooklyn, N. Y.) 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



A. 

Actual condition*; in country districts 18 

Adult organized classes in the Sunday-school 295 

Advantages for spiritual culture in the country 13—17 

Advantages of the suburban church 78 

Advantages of the town 59 

Agricultural associations 188 

American Sunday-School Union missionaries 296 

Appreciating worthy church workers 290 

Approaches to villages improved 204 

Ashland, Ohio, on Christian work 233 

" Atmosphere " in pedagogy 9 

B. 

Babcock, Maltbie D 238 

Beautifying homes and surroundings 199 

Berwyn, Md., Presbyterian church 259 

Bible in the public schools 179 

Bible revival in the church 306 

Bible work in the local church 304 

Books shaping lives 175 

" Borough " form of local government 123 

Boys' and Girls' Organizations, Appendix .*. 311 

Boys' Messenger Corps 237 

Brotherhoods in the church 299 

Burkett on the Farm Home 163 

Bushnell's " Age of Homespun " 162 

Business methods of olden times 141 

315 



316 TOPICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

Business on ethical principles 146 

Buttcrfield, President, on the country church 260 

C. 

Carlyle on books 175 

Children organized in the church 300 

Christ's broad and varied work , 248 

Church pre-eminent in the country 1 r 

Church undeveloped not exhausted 108, 218 

City form of government in small town 122 

" City " in United States Census 20 

Civic conditions in the country. 121 

Civic development essential 1 26 

Civilization is fuller organization 103 

College town 69 

Commission on Country Life 47, 92 

Communities of five kinds , 18 

Comprehensive Bible work in local church 306 

Confusion of thought on Christian giving ... 262 

Country churches in financial straits 262 

Country colleges 180 

Country people sharing in modern progress 95 

Country store a social center 149 

County seat town 63 

Curfew law enforced in villages 127 

D. 

Decadence of the town 55 

Denominations in America 223 

Divine call to workers 118 

Drift of population now country-ward 22 

E. 

Educating for country life 175 

Education compulsory 169 

Educational improvement 167 

Electric railways in the country 83 



TOPICAL INDEX. 317 

paob 

Emerson on books 175 

Enthusiasm for the farm 95 

Esthetic culture by Village Improvement 201 

Esthetic movements in the local church 257 

Ethico-political discussions promoted 124 

Evening in the farm-house 14 

Every church member a worker 249 

F. 

Factory towns 64 

Farm business made honest 147 

Farmers' wives, Good Housekeeping 161 

Farmers' wives, Ladies' Home Journal 1 58 

Farmers' wives, Roosevelt 1 57 

Federation of church work 237 

Federation of ch urches, actual cases 278 

Finances chaotic in country churches 262 

First-fruits principle in giving 266 

Fishing villages 69 

Flag honored in villages 125 

Future of rural districts full of promise 81 

G. 

Gambling in villages 128 

" Good Housekeeping " on farmers' wives 161 

Good roads movement 82 

Gospel principles of Christian work 106 

Gospel propaganda by ideals 101 

Government of United States helping farmers 86, 90 

Grading the Sunday-school 293 

Granges growing and prosperous 187 

Gray, on buried talents 284 

Growth of rural America. 22 

H. 

Hagerstown, Md., Adult Bible classes 233 

Harris on nature revealing God 12 



3 i8 TOPICAL INDEX. 

PAGS 

Herschell on the heavens 1 1 

High Schools for rural districts 177 

Hillis on value of education 174 

Historic spots in the village 203 

Hitchcock on nature revealing God 11 

Holly Springs, N. C, High School 176 

Holy Spirit vs. Organization 107 

Home as Christianizing power 1 54 

Home conditions in the country 158 

Home ideals in rest and fellowship 150 

Home is ideal in the country 150 

Home replenished by the church 155 

Homes that are unattractive 45 

Hospitality in Christian work 255 

Hudson, Marshall A., in Baraca and Philathea Adult 

Bible class 234 

Huxley and Tyndall on Bible in schools 180 

I. 

Immorality thoughtlessly fostered 36 

Improvements, Village Association 199 

Individual work for individuals 235 

Industries returning to towns 56 

Institutes for farmers 182 

Institutes for farmers in all States 183 

Institutes for farmers in Penna 185 

Intellectual work in local church 255 

Inter-communication improved 204 

Interstate Commission on Agricultural Association 188 

Irrigated lands 92 

J. 

Jesus not understood in his village 192 

Judging superficially of neighbors 194 

K. 
King's Daughters Circles 299 



TOPICAL INDEX, $Ig 

L. 

PAGE 

Ladies' Aid Societies -, 00 

" Ladies' Home Journal " on farmers' wives 158 

Lamb saying " grace " over a book I7 r 

Law and Order Societies of value 128 

Laws unenforced in the country 44 

Lesson courses in the Sunday-school 293, 294 

Lincoln I0 

Literary Societies in the church 301 

Local church a missionary center 228 

Local newspaper used 12c 

Lodge on results of education 174 

Loneliness of American farm life 28, 40 

Lowell on ideals 261 

M. 

Many offices for one man 241 

Marburg, Ala., in Christian work 232 

" Men raised here " 282 

Metropolitan city problem 18 

Milton on books 175 

Mining towns 67 

Mission bands and societies 299 

Moral training in public schools 178 

Moral training in schools as illustrated in temperance 

reform 178 

Moral training in the church , . . 259 

N. 

National holidays well observed 124 

Nature study essential 172 

Nature study in the country 97 

Nevada, Ohio, in Christian work 231 

Nevada, Ohio, a model village 126 

Never closed church " ..... 255 

Northampton, Mass, in education 175 



3 20 TOPICAL INDEX. 

O. 

PAGE 

Objectionable posters and cards removed 128 

Offerings proportionately small 281 

One office for one man 244 

One Sunday-school Superintendent's devotion 243 

One talent men failing to work 239 

One-tenth of the tithe actually given 281 

Open church all the time 255 

Organization is of God 106 

Organization perfected in denominational movements 

not in local church 217 

Organizing to find all the talents 282 

Overcrowding towns by small churches 57 

P. 

Parables of the Kingdom applied 102 

Pastor's vocation, training workers 249 

Personal Workers' Bands 248, 303 

Petty crimes abounding in towns 43 

Physical improvement of villages 199 

Physical opportunities for the church 252 

Placing the trained workers 289 

Plans for local ingatherings 231 

Piatt, Dr. Ward, on churchless towns 277 

Policemen needed for villages 128 

Present condition of local churches 218 

Principles of Christian work 224 

Proportionate giving in the church 230 

R. 

Railroad secured for village 204 

Railroad towns 66 

Relations of workmen and employer on the farm 136 

Retail business morally improved 141 

Riley, James Whitcomb 1 2, 198 

Roosevelt on the farm home 1 57 



TOPICAL INDEX. 321 

PAGE 

Rural free delivery of mail, statistics 86 

Ruskin on God in nature 12 

S. 

Sabbath observance profitable 138 

Salesmen's perseverance 235 

Saloon going out of country districts 95 

Saloons driven out : 126 

School Board selected wisely 174 

School laws improved 168 

Self-sacrifice the law of power 117 

Short school terms demoralizing 168 

Skepticism in the country , . 40 

Social church work 254 

Social conditions free 16 

Social frivolities of the small town 52 

Social Gospel 104 

Social life in villages 191 

Special spiritual organization 302 

Spread of the Gospel by ideals 101 

Spread of the Gospel by individual accessions 102 

Spurgeon on God and nature , 12 

Statistics of farm laborers 133 

Statistics of farm production 132 

Statistics of farms and owners 133 

Stewardship to God of all possessions 266 

Stores as social centers . . . 44 

Strategic is the country for Christianizing 24 

Suburban religious conditions 72 

Sunday-school in modern organization 293 

Sunday-schools training to give 279 

Superstitions lingering in the country 38 

Swearing may be suppressed 128 

T, 

Teacher Training Class , 289 

Teachers carefully selected 170-173 



322 TOPICAL I. YD EX. 

PAGE 

Teacher's powerful influence 172 

Telephone as now extended 206 

Telephone in the country 85 

Tithing a practical beginning 268 

Tithing in Christian Endeavor Societies , 269 

Tithing in several churches 271 

Tithing in Wesley Chapel, Cinn. 270 

Training the members' talents 288 

Two-fold propaganda of Gospel 101 

U. 

Undeveloped local church 218 

United States Agricultural Department 90 

Unoccupied condition . 48 

Ushers' Associations 301 

Using the Colleges in organized work 288 

Using the local newspapers 125 

V. 

Value of literary society 208 

Varied work for all talents , 239 

Village approaches improved 204 

Village Improvement Association 199 

Village Singing Schools 202 

W. 

Wanamaker, John, on Principles of Business 146 

Wealth of the United States 280 

Wesley's motto 250 

Wife of farmer, in Roosevelt's words 157 

Willing workers as nucleus 115 

Wisconsin University's work for farmers 182 

Work-day relations of former times 131 

Workmen wisely developed 137 

Workshop or hospital churches 113 






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